


Lily's Wish - First Year

by RottenFujoshiGirl



Series: Lily's Wish [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Labyrinth (1986), Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fae, Fae & Fairies, Gen, Good Slytherins, Gryffindor/Slytherin Inter-House Relationships, Hogwarts First Year, Mentor Severus Snape, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Prophecy, Prophetic Visions, Prophets, Protectiveness, Ravenclaw Hermione Granger, Slytherin Harry Potter, Titania - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-01-26 19:23:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21379264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RottenFujoshiGirl/pseuds/RottenFujoshiGirl
Summary: When Lily Evans was at Hogwarts she saved the life of an injured fairy. That fairy turned out to be Titania Queen of the Fairies who now owes Lily a Life Dept. Years later the two have become friends and when the Potter's go into hiding Lily makes a wish that will change everything. As repayment for the Life Dept Titania must protect Harry until Voldemort is defeated. How best for her to do this? Why attend Hogwarts with him of course!
Relationships: Harry Potter & Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter & Severus Snape, Lily Evans Potter & Original Female Character(s), Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape, Severus Snape & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Lily's Wish [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1541233
Comments: 8
Kudos: 71





	1. The Wish

“Hello, Lily. It is good to see you.”

Hearing the familiar voice, the young witch turned from watching little Harry playing in the garden. James was inside reading letters and getting updates from the order on the state of the war and wouldn't be done for another hour or two. She had time to speak with her friend in peace.

“Titania. It’s good to see you too, I was starting to think you wouldn’t come.”

The Fairy Queen smiled sadly, showing off just a hint of pointed fang. Her wild ringleted tresses shone golden in the mid-summer sun, kept out of her pail face tucked behind pointed ears. Forest green eyes streaked threw with gold and silver held the weight of centuries, the only part of her otherwise youthful appearance to show her great age.

“Ah, my good friend, after all this time you still choose to doubt me? I am wounded by your lack of faith!” the Fae exclaimed dramatically clutching a hand to her chest.

Lily rolled her eyes at her friend’s antics but was unable to hold back a chuckle. “Enough of that. Now come meet Harry. I can’t believe he’s nearly a year old and I haven’t had the chance to introduce you yet!”

Lily and Titania had been close friends for over five years now. The fiery witch had saved the Fairy Queen's life during her second year at Hogwarts from the torment of a group of older students when Titania had been lost and injured in her tiny fairy form. Ever since the Queen began to watch over Lily and soon started visiting her whenever she was feeling lost or upset. Before they knew it the two of them were quickly becoming friends. The visits became more often and the pair grew close. The only person closer to Lily was Severus and that was until their argument fifth year. They rarely went more than a month or two without seeing each other. 

“I know, I know.” The Fae woman sighed. “There’s been unrest among the kingdoms lately. Some of those among the Fae Rulers who seek more power wish to align themselves with this Dark Wizard of yours. My allies and I are doing all we can to prevent their interference.” There was a moment of silence before she shook herself. “Enough about that. I didn’t come here to talk about the war. Show me the child.”

“You make that sound vaguely threatening.” Lily drawls as she bends down to scoop up baby Harry into her arms. “Hey there Pumpkin. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

Very slowly Harry turns big green eyes on the interesting new stranger with the strange sparkily looking clothing and the funny slanted eyebrows. After a moment’s further inspection, Harry removes the hand from his mouth which he had previously been chewing on and reaches it out to grasp at a wayward strand of wheat-coloured hair; having apparently decided the new person to be ‘safe’. Titania lets out a giggle and extends her arms to Lily who obediently hands her son over.

“Hello there Harry. It’s so good to finally meet you face to face.” coos Titania as she holds the entranced child against her hip.

Harry, wanting to explore his new environment promptly begins grabbing at her face and pulling on the points of her ears. She winces but lets him continue with his investigation, even making funny faces and sticking out her tongue to blow a raspberry at him till she has him giggling and squirming in delight. Lily watches as her long-time friend, the woman who grew to be like an older sister to her, plays and laughs with her son, her baby boy, and in that moment she makes a decision.

“Titania.”

The Queen looks up at her name, the smile on her face fading at the sad look to her friend’s eyes and the determined set to her shoulders.

“Lily?” the name becomes a question. She can see that her friend has something important to say. She can only hope that the sinking feeling in her gut is wrong this time, even though it never has been before.

“In repayment for the Life Dept I am owed, I wish for you; Fairy Queen Titania of the High Fae to protect my son; Harry James Potter from harm and ensure his wellbeing until the time in which the Dark Lord Voldemort is defeated and he is no longer a threat.”

With those words, Titania let out a gasp as the ancient magics of the Fae surged threw her, binding her and the contract. 

“So it is said so it shall be done.” Resites Titania as she lets the magics settle and sink into her skin. Closing her eyes she takes a deep fortifying breath. “I hope you know what you’re doing Lil. With this, I no longer owe you anything, I won’t be able to save you when he comes for you.”

A sad smile stretches across the auburn-haired witch’s face, her watery bright green eyes search out their match in the face of her son. She nods once, her gaze never drifting from the tiny head of messy black hair. 

“I’m sure.”

Finally, she looks back up at the darker green eyes of her friend. They both stare for a minute, neither daring to move as a silent conversation of over a thousand words happens between them. Then still not breaking eye contact Titania gives a single silent nod, barely a dip of her chin but it is enough. Both of them have made their choices and both are committed. One of them to die at the hands of the enemy and the other to watch and do nothing, to go on and protect that which the first shall leave behind.

For it was, in fact, Lily Potter’s sacrifice which protected her son from Voldemort’s killing curse that fateful Halloween night, though not in the way Albus Dumbledore would come to one day assume.


	2. Life Goes On

On the 31st October 1981, James and Lily Potter died at the hands of Lord Voldemort. It is said that no magic is capable of blocking the killing curse, and that is true, for mortal magic at least. When the Dark Lord turned his wand on young Harry Potter, however, it was not mortal magic he faced but the ancient and powerful protective magic of the Fae. The curse rebounded unto Voldemort scattering his soul to the wind, the wizarding world celebrated, and Harry Potter was heralded as the boy who lived. Meanwhile in a little picture-perfect town in Surrey, on a picture-perfect street, on the doorstep of a picture-perfect house lay a sleeping 15-month-old Harry, watched over and kept warm by a grieving fairy queen. 

Several months passed with little excitement. The Dursleys were not happy about taking Harry in, especially with their own son being around the same age, but he was just a baby. There was not much they could do about the situation so they took care of him, doing the bare minimum to keep him alive and healthy but not much more. Titania lost in her grief and thinking Harry to be safe with his relatives did not notice the signs.

Then one night when Harry was sleeping Titania felt a pull on her magic. 

_ A summoning?  _ She thought.  _ But who could be summoning me now? And why? _

Her curiosity getting the best of her Queen Titania donned her ceremonial outfit and transported herself to the summoner with a puff of smoke and a shower of glitter. 

The room she appeared in was not, in fact, a room at all but a holding cell within the British wizarding world’s Azkaban prison. There, crouched on the floor in front of her was a dishevelled looking man with long pale blond hair, so light in colour as to almost appear white. Coupled with his grey eyes and plaid skin, stretched tight over his sharp features you could almost mistake him for a ghost. You could see the Dementors were beginning to get to him. She recognised him almost immediately though as he held a strong resemblance to his forefathers. 

_ Ah, a Malfoy. This should be interesting. _

Over the centuries the Queen has had many children with both those of her own realm and those of the mortal world. The Malfoy family is one such wizarding family which descends from her, passing down the knowledge of her existence and how to call for her in times of trouble. The imprisoned wizard; who had been frozen, staring wide-eyed at the imposing figure of the glowing Fairy Queen - suddenly shook himself from his shock and threw himself at her feet, bowing so low that his head nearly scraped the ground. He began begging for her to absolve him of his crimes and give him back his freedom and power. The Dark Mark was clearly visible through the torn sleeve of the prison garb he had been dressed in. The Fae looked down upon the cowering wizard and wondered when it was her descendants sunk so low as to follow a mad man. She felt nothing but disappointment to see where her family had ended up; grovelling at her feet, unable to face the consequences of his actions. She had half a mind to just leave him there to rot but a part of her said that this was an opportunity. That he could be useful.

“Enough!” She commanded, “I shall offer you a deal. A bargain of sorts. I will convince the ministry that you were under the influence of the Imperious curse, thus ensuring you keep your freedom and power. In exchange, you shall denounce the Dark Lord and offer your Loyalty to me instead, granting me a claim over you and your family.” 

At this the grovelling wizard finally looked up, clutching at her skirts he nodded his head.

“Yes! I accept. What would you have me do My Lady?” He asked, an eager gleam to his eyes.

“Nothing, for now. Simply wait and observe.” Titania leaned down and planted a gentle kiss upon his forehead. “There. It is done. Upon your trial, the Wizengamont shall find you innocent of all charges and you shall be set free to return to your normal life. Do not make me regret this.”

“Yes My Lady. Oh, thank you!” Malfoy exclaimed, bowing his head once more.

Taking a step back Titania gave a single nod before vanishing from the haunted island and returning to Little Winning to watch over her charge.

  
  


*~*~*~*~*~*

  
  


Years passed and Harry’s life at the Dursleys slowly got worse and worse. Titania did all she could to protect the boy but bound by the rules of the Fae she was unable to interfere too heavily in his life unless ensuring his wellbeing as per the terms of Lily’s wish. What little she could do had to stay unnoticed by Harry’s aunt and uncle, lest he get punished for breaking their rules. 

She made sure to keep him warm and well-fed; hiding blankets and food in his cupboard under the stairs, mending his clothes (Dudley’s old hand me downs) and making sure they fit him better and would keep him safe from the elements, adding spells and protections along the way. She tried to visit him as much as possible, disguised in the form of some animal or other; dogs, cats, squirrels and birds, even notably as a snake after discovering they could talk to each other while she was in that form. Every year on Christmas and his birthday she would leave him a special present, hidden under his pillow with a note not to let his relatives find it and wishing him happiness. 

When Dudley and his gang started bullying Harry, Titania would protect him and help him get away. The group of bullies found themselves unable to lay a hand on him and soon lost interest, choosing instead to ignore him and move on to different targets. If Harry ever found himself sick or injured she would quickly heal him and soothe his pain. 

Unfortunately, she was unable to do much more than that. The Dursleys still treated Harry horribly; making him do all the chores, verbally and emotionally abusing him, locking him away in his cupboard, and hiding his existence from all but a few. Some nights when Harry was lying alone in his cupboard after crying himself to sleep, she would come to him and hold him in her arms while she sang a quiet lullaby and tried to make him feel like he was loved. She would always have to leave him before he woke up but she hoped it would be enough.

Harry, having obviously noticed the food and the presents, as well as some of the other strange phenomenon, came to think of her as his guardian angel or fairy godmother. He believed her to be the spirit of his dead parents, watching over him, as he’d never seen her outside of her animal forms. 

Then finally after what felt like both eternity and just the blink of an eye the day she was waiting for finally came. Harry’s Hogwarts letter had arrived and soon he would be leaving this place and she could finally let him see her. While Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were busy worrying about what this meant Titania stole the letter and slipped it under Harry’s pillow for him to find. Upon discovery of the letter, Harry immediately tore into the envelope and began reading. By the end of the first sentence, his eyes were the size of dinner plates and his mouth was hanging open in disbelief. He read over the letter several times before putting it down, only to pick it up a moment later to read it again.

For the rest of the week, Harry would take the letter out to read it every time he got a spare moment. He chose not to confront his Aunt and Uncle about it ‘cause he knew he’d get in trouble for reading the letter. He just couldn’t quite believe it. Him a wizard. But he was just Harry. Poor little orphaned Harry who lived in the cupboard under the stairs. He couldn’t be a wizard. Could he? The letter said that someone would be coming to take him to get his school supplies. He guessed he’d just have to wait and see.

Then one morning while he was in the middle of making breakfast for the Dursley’s there came a loud knock at the door. Harry quickly turned off the stove then rushed to open the door. There standing on the Dursley’s front porch was the largest man that Harry had ever seen, his shaggy hair and beard almost obscuring the massive grin that spread across his face.

“‘Ello th’re ‘Arry! Why I ‘aven’t seen you since you was just a baby! Got some’em for ya. Fraid I migh’a sat on it at some point but I imagine it’ll taste fine just the same!” the big friendly man said, reaching into his huge moleskin jacket and pulling out a box with a blue ribbon.

Taken aback from the enthusiastic greeting Harry takes the box which is the same size as the mans gigantic hands and opens it.

“Baked it myself, words an’ all.” The man says as Harry looks down at the slightly smooshed birthday cake with ‘Hapee Birthdae Harry’ written on it in green icing.

“Thank you. Are you the one who’s come to take me to do my school shopping?” he asked hopefully.

“Ay, that I am! Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts at your service.” the man - Hagrid responded.

Harry’s eyes widened.

“So it’s true? I’m really a wizard?” he breathed out, barely above a whisper.

Hagrid must have herd him though for his brow furrowed before he responded.

“Why of course ‘ur a wizard. W’at with…”

“Boy! Who is it at the door? If they’re selling something tell’em we’re not interested and send them on their way!” Uncle Vernon shouted from the kitchen, cutting Hagrid off mid-sentence.

“That ‘ur uncle now is it?” Hagrid asked, looking down the hall. “Better go get ‘im and tell ‘im I’m ‘ere ta pick ye up. I’d come in and tell ‘im meself but I don’ think I’d fit!”

Just then Aunt Petunia came round the corner, wondering what was taking so long and ready to scold the boy when she saw Hagrid taking up the entire doorway and froze in her tracks. 

“Ah! Mrs Dursley. I’m ‘ere to collect ‘Arry ‘n’ take ‘im ta get ‘is school things. I’m sure you read the le’er.” Hagrid said, bending down to better see through the doorway. 

Aunt Petunia sputtered, seemingly lost for words before pulling her self together.

“You most certainly will not! You’re one of them, aren’t you? One of those… those  _ freaks! _ Come to take him away to that _ school _ to teach him magic tricks. Well, I won’t have it!” she shrieked drawing the attention of Dudley and Uncle Vernon who emerged from the kitchen.

“Now see ‘ere!…” 

“No! He will not be going! We swore when we took him in we’d put a stop to all this rubbish!” Uncle Vernon cut in, stepping forward in front of Petunia.

“You knew?!” Harry asked whipping around.

It only went downhill from there. A shouting argument broke out between Harry, Hagrid, Vernon and Petunia and ended with Hagrid giving Dudley a pigs tail for eating Harry’s birthday cake. 

In the end, Harry and Hagrid left Privet Drive and headed to London where they entered a seedy-looking pub called the Leaky Caldron where a crowd of strangely dressed people who could only be witches and wizards proceded to greet Harry and shake his hand. Overwhelmed and confused by all the attention Harry was glad when Hagrid led him out through the back door and proceded to tap a pattern into the brick wall with the end of his pink umbrella. To Harry’s amazement, the bricks began to move and rotate until he was standing before an archway that led into the most wonderful place Harry had ever seen. 

“Welcome Harry, to Diagon Ally.”


	3. Diagon Ally

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the dialogue in this chapter is taken directly from the book. I in no way claim this content to be my own and give full credit to J.K.Rowling and the Harry Potter franchise.

After having collected some money from Gringotts and that strange little package that Hagrid wouldn’t talk about, Harry made his way over to  _ Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions _ to get his uniform while Hagrid went to try and recover from the wild cart-ride. Harry was nervous about going in alone. Upon entering a squat, smiling witch dressed all in purple who could only be Madam Malkin ushered him up onto a stool next to another boy his age with a pale pointed face and pale blond hair. A robe was unceremoniously shoved over his head and the other boy began talking, reminding him strongly of Dudley and asking him if he played Quidditch whatever that was. Before he could respond though the door opened with a tinkle of the bell and a young girl also around Harry’s age entered the shop. The girl had long curly blond hair and big green doe eyes. She too was placed upon a stool with a robe thrown over her head.

“Hello. Is it your first year at Hogwarts as well?” the girl asked, her voice high and musical.

Harry nodded as did the other boy.

“I’m Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.” the blond boy said. He said it with such an air of importance as if his name was supposed to inspire the sort of reaction Harry had gotten in the Leaky Caldron. Mabey he was somebody famous as well?

“Tanya,” the girl responded simply before turning to Harry expectantly.

“Harry,” he responded, holding out his free hand to shake while Madam Malkin pinned the other sleave.

“Either of you know what house you’ll be in yet?” Draco asked, obviously only half paying attention.

“No,” said Harry feeling more lost every time Draco opened his mouth.

“Well, no one really knows till they get sorted now, do they?” responded Tanya, making Harry feel a little better about his ignorance.

“Well obviously,” Said Draco, rolling his eyes, “but I know I’ll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?” 

“Of course not! That’s just silly. Why give up learning magic just because you don’t like your house? Plus Hufflepuff’s are supposed to be hard workers and make really good friends.” Tanya replied. She looked offended that the boy Draco would even dare to think such a thing.

Draco, on the other hand, scoffed and turned his nose up at her, opening his mouth as if to start insulting her before pausing in shock and pointing out the window.

“I say, look at that man!”

Sure enough, there at the front window was Hagrid, grinning and pointing at two large icecreams to show he couldn’t come in.

“That’s Hagrid,” Harry said, pleased to know something the pompous boy didn’t. “He works at Hogwarts.”

“Oh,” said Draco the sneer coming back to his voice. “I’ve heard of him. He’s a servant isn’t he?”

“He’s the gamekeeper,” said Harry, He was liking Malfoy less and less every second he spoke.

“Yes exactly. I heard he’s sort of  _ savage _ \- lives in a hut on the school grounds by the forest and every now and again gets drunk, tries to do magic and ends up setting fire to his bed.”

“Why that’s just  _ rude _ !” exclaimed Tanya in shock.

“Well I think he’s brilliant,” Harry said coldly.

“ _ Do _ you? What’s wrong with you two? Where are your parents?” 

“They’re dead,” said Harry shortly. He didn’t feel much like going into the matter with the obnoxious boy.

“Mine too,” added Tanya, shocking Harry slightly.

“Oh, sorry,” said Malfoy, not sounding sorry at all. “But they were  _ our _ kind, weren’t they?” he asked suspiciously, looking back and forth between Harry and Tanya.

“They were a witch and a wizard if that’s what you mean,” Harry replied.

“Dad had magic but mum didn’t,” replied Tanya her tone clipped.

“I suppose that’ll have to do. Least your not a filthy  _ mudblood _ . I really don’t think they should let that sort in, do you? They’re just not the same, they’ve never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What are your surnames anyway?”

“Is that really what you think or are you just repeating what old daddy dearest has told you?” Tanya asked taking on a bit of a sneer of her own.

But before anyone could respond any further, Madam Malkin said, “that’s you done, my dear,” and Harry, happy for an excuse to leave the conversation hopped down from the stool and made his way over to the counter. Tanya, also done with both her robes and the conversation was not far behind him and followed him outside to sit with Hagrid.

“Do you mind if I join you two? I’m here by myself till my cousin comes to pick me up this afternoon,” she asked as Hagrid handed Harry his icecream (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).

“Sure,” Harry replied at the same time as Hagrid said, “Why o’ corse ye can!”

After Harry and Hagrid had finished their icecreams with Tanya stealing a few licks from Harry’s the three of them set off to do the rest of their shopping. First stop was parchment and quills. Harry found a bottle of ink that changed colour as you wrote and Tanya found a set of quills which would never break and would always stay sharp. Harry was quiet the whole time still thinking about everything that Draco had said. Tanya must have noticed his mood cause at one point while Hagrid was distracted she came over to him and gently elbowed him in the side.

“Don’t pay attention to those thing’s Malfoy was saying. He was just being a git and had no idea what he was talking about. Some of the brightest witches and wizards out there grew up in nonmagical households.”

“How did you…?” Harry asked trailing off.

“I’m good at reading people. Girl’s intuition.” She responded shrugging her shoulders.

Harry cheered up after that. When they left to go to the next store they walked past a shop displaying brooms that proudly claimed to sell Quidditch gear. Harry bucked up the courage and asked Hagrid what Quidditch was. After some exclamations about how Hagrid kept forgetting how little Harry knew about the wizarding world, the kindly giant explained that it was a kind of wizarding sport which was very popular and was played in the air on flying broomsticks. Harry then asked about Slytherin and Hufflepuff and got a jumbled explanation from both Hagrid and Tanya about the four Hogwarts houses and their purpose at the school. Hagrid seemed to think that Gryffindor - the house of the brave, was the best house as that was the house he had been put in while at Hogwarts and was also the house of Harry’s parents. Tanya, however, disagreed; saying that all four houses were equally good and bad and that it didn’t matter what house you were put in as long as you made the best of it.

“You see when my dad was at Hogwarts he was in Ravenclaw. My cousin, who raised me and my brother after my parents were killed was in Slytherin and my older brother who’s just left Hogwarts was a Hufflepuff but all his friends and teachers thought he should have been a Gryffindor.” She explained. 

After that, they continued on with their shopping, the next stop being  _ Flourish and Blotts _ to get their school books. While there Hagrid had to practically drag Harry away from a book on curses and countercurses which he’d been looking at to try and find a way to get back at the Dursley’s. Both he and Tanya ended up getting a couple of extra books that weren’t on the supplies list. They all had to be approved by Hagrid though so the book on curses stayed sadly on the shelves.

“If you want to learn more about the wizarding world before coming to Hogwarts this is probably the best way to do it. Plus I always did like sitting down with a good book,” Tanya told Harry while setting her pile of books up on the counter for the shop assistant to ring up and package. 

Next was caldrons, scales, and telescopes. Hagrid wouldn’t let Harry by a solid gold cauldron but they each got a nice set of scales and collapsable bronze telescopes. Next was the Apothecary where Harry spent the entire time being equal parts fascinated and disgusted with all the strange ingredients and animal parts. The smell was absolutely awful and Harry had to repress the urge to hold his nose the whole time. Tanya, however, didn’t seem bothered and spent the whole time darting all over the shop, picking up jars and muttering under her breath about quality and prices. She ended up selecting the ingredients herself for both her and Harry before bringing them up to the counter to pay. Harry couldn’t be sure but it looked like there were more ingredients in her pile than there were in his. Outside the shop, he asked her about it and she explained that her cousin had already taught her some things about potion making and that she was buying extra ingredients to make some of the potions that he had taught her.

“There’s this one Headache potion which he taught me which is supposedly a family recipe. I find it works much better for me than the kind you can buy at a store. It’s also a lot cheaper to make and I don’t mind putting in the effort.”

“‘ere let me ‘ave another look at that list oh yours,” Hagrid asked gesturing for Harry to hand him the bit of parchment. After a quick perusal, he nodded and handed it back to Harry. “Just yer wand left - oh and I ‘aven’t gotten ye a birthday present.”

At this, Harry turned bright red and stuttered out that Hagrid really didn’t need to get him anything. 

“Harry you didn’t tell me it was your birthday! Now I just have to get you something both for your birthday and to celebrate us meeting each other!” Tanya exclaimed excitedly.

Overwhelmed Harry was quickly strong-armed into _Ollivander’s_ wand shop while his two companions went off to buy him presents. Inside the store, Harry was met by the excentric Ollivander and spent quite a bit of time trying wand after wand with apparently no results, the pile of tried wands growing higher and higher until eventually, Harry found it. His wand. Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple. Harry then received Mr Ollivanders cryptic warning and left the shop feeling creeped out and a little shaken. He quickly forgot about that however when he saw Tanya and Hagrid standing just outside the wand shop. Hagrid was grinning from ear to ear and holding out a cage containing a beautiful snowy white owl. 

Harry was absolutely entranced by the golden-eyed bird and immediately went over to stroke her feathers through the bars of the cage. The young owl seemed just as interested in her new owner, affectionately nibbling at his finger and leaning into his touch. The owl was dubbed Hedwig and promptly tucked her head under her wing and fell deeply asleep having been tired out by all the excitement in the middle of the day. Tanya then handed Harry a wrapped box that when opened revealed an enchanted silver watch. 

“No matter where you are in the world it will always show the correct time. It can also help you find your way if you get lost and will glow red in the presence of danger.” Tanya explained, taking the watch out of the box and slipping it onto his left wrist. 

Once the clasp closed in place the watch shrank to fit his arm so that it wouldn’t slip or fall off. The shiny metal was warm and light making the watch extremely comfortable to wear. 

“Thank you. I don’t know what to say. No one’s ever gotten me birthday presents this nice before.” the presents Harry would find in his cupboard didn’t count as those weren’t from a person but his guardian angel.

“Oh, that’s all righ’ ‘Arry. It’s not every day your young man turns eleven now is it?” replied Hagrid.

They made there way back down Diagon Ally and out into the Leaky Caldron where Harry and Hagrid said goodbye to Tanya who was to wait there till her cousin arrived to take her back home.

“I’ll see you at Hogwart’s,” she said giving Harry a big hug before he and Hagrid left to catch the train back to the Dursleys. People stared at them the whole way what with Hagrid’s great size and all of their strangely shaped packages, not to mention Hedwig still asleep in her cage. 

The rest of the holidays passed in a blur and before Harry knew it, it was September 1st and it was time for him to leave and catch the train to Hogwarts. His adventures were just about to begin.


	4. The Hogwarts Express and The Sorting Ceremony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains dialogue from both the book and the movie. I in no way claim this content to be my own and give all credit to J.K.Rowling and the Harry Potter Franchise.

Harry, curtesy of the Dursley’s arrived in London at King’s Cross Station at half-past ten on the morning of September first. After dumping Harry and his trunk on a trolly at the station the Dursleys quickly proceded to drive away cackling with laughter at having finally gotten rid of him. Shrugging his shoulders and trying to ignore the growing crowd of people staring at him and Hedwig Harry began pushing his trolly along the platforms, looking for platform nine and three quarters. After several minutes of fruitless searching, Harry decided to ask a passing guard where he could find the platform only to get laughed at and dismissed. Harry was starting to get worried when he heard a familiar voice calling his name.

“Harry! It’s so good to see you!” Exclaimed Tanya pushing her trolly in front of her. “How was the rest of your holidays? Say you wouldn’t happen to know how to get onto the platform would you?”

“No, sorry. I was hoping you would know.” Harry replied, deflating somewhat.

“Sorry. My cousin said it was hidden by magic but didn’t tell me where it was or how to get there. Brother wasn’t any help either. I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be their idea of a joke.” Tanya responded sighing in defeat.

Just as Harry was about to give up hope he spotted a group of redheads pushing trollies with trunks like his and one of them had a cage with an owl in it! Harry gestured for Tanya to look and the two of them started following the group. Sure enough up closer they were able to catch a sliver of the conversation.

“ - packed with Muggles, of course. Come on. Platform nine and three quarters this way.”

They followed the group who came to a stop at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Then one of the children, the oldest by the look of him, started running straight at the barrier. Harry was shocked as between one blink and the next the boy had disappeared through the wall. As if by magic. Harry and Tanya watched as one after the other the twins then disappeared through the seemingly solid barrier. Plucking up his courage Harry pushed his trolly up to the kindly looking woman who could only be the group of children’s mother. 

“Excuse me? Could you show us how to… Uhm-”

“How to get onto the platform?” she asked politely. Both Harry and Tanya nodded gratefully.

A quick explanation had Harry, running directly towards what appeared to be a solid brick wall and desperately hoping he wasn’t about to crash. Once on the other side, he breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out of the way for Tanya and the other boy - Ron to come through the hidden entrance. Harry couldn’t help himself from staring in wonder at the shiny scarlet steam engine with the words _ Hogwarts Express _plastered boldly across the front. There was a crowd of witches and wizards all milling about and wishing their kids goodbye or helping them with their trunks. Cats of all shapes and colours were winding about peoples legs and owls of all different kinds hooted from their cages. Once the others were through the group of three made their way onto the train with their luggage (with a little help from Ron’s twin brothers Fred and George). They found an empty compartment and the three decided to sit together as everywhere else appeared to be full.

“I’m Ron by the way. Ron Weasley.” the red-headed boy said, sticking out his hand. His face was covered in freckles and he had a smudge of dirt on his nose.

“I’m Harry. Harry Potter.” Harry replied and watched as Ron’s eyes went as wide as saucers. 

“Blimey! So… so it’s true? Do you really have the… the-”

“The what?” Harry asked.

“The scar,” he whispered leaning forward.

Harry lifted his fringe, moving it out the way so the strange lightning bolt scar was clearly visible across his forehead.

“Wicked.” 

“And I’m Tanya. Tanya LeFay. You’re one of Bill’s brother’s aren’t you?” Tanya askes, at Ron’s nod she continues; “I thought so. My cousin knows Bill. He also works with the Goblins and met him while he was at the bank.” 

“Yeah. Bill’s the oldest. There’s seven of us all together, not counting mum and dad of course. You got any siblings?”

“An older brother, he just finished Hogwarts a couple years ago. We don’t really talk much.”

Just then a smiling dimpled woman came pushing a large cart covered in all manner of strange wizarding candy and confectionery. “Anything off the trolly dears?” she asked.

After buying enough food to feed a small army the three of them settled in for the long train ride and began digging into the wonderful sweets. They talked as they ate and Harry found himself getting to know his new friends. He related to Ron and his life growing up the youngest of six brothers. He could tell that he and the ginger boy would get along just great. Tanya was just as smart and bubbly as she’d been back in Diagon Ally. She was happy to see that he was wearing the watch she had given him (he hadn’t taken it off except to shower since she’d put it on his wrist). Out of the three of them, Ron turned out to be the one most knowledgeable about the wizarding world and ended up explaining some of the different cakes and chocolates and things to the others while they ate. Harry found himself fascinated by the moving pictures on the cards from the Chocolate Frogs and Tanya began daring the other two to eat the Berty Bots Every Flavored Beans to see which one of them would get a bad one. The three new friends were having a marvellous time and Ron had just pulled out his want to try and turn his rat, Scabbers yellow when there was a knock at the door and a round-faced boy looking rather forlorn came in with a bushy-haired girl already dressed in her new Hogwarts robes. 

“Has anyone seen a toad? Neville’s lost one,” said the girl. She had a bossy sort of voice and rather large front teeth.

“No, sorry,” Harry replied while the others shook their heads.

The boy sniffed but the girl didn’t appear to be listening anymore. She was looking at the wand in Ron’s hand.

“Are you doing magic? Let’s see then.”

Ron cleared his throat and began reciting the supposed incantation. When nothing happened the girl raised her eyebrow while Tanya tried to smother her giggles behind her hands.

“Are you sure that’s a real spell?” the girl asked. “Well it’s not very good, is it? I’ve only tried a few simple spells myself but they’ve all worked for me.” 

At this, she pulled out her wand while Harry and Ron shared a look. She came further into the compartment and sat down next to Tanya so that she was across from Harry. Pointing her wand at his broken glasses which were being held together with tape she cleared her throat.

“For example. Occulus Reparo.” 

With a wave of her wand Harry’s glasses magically became fixed, the tape melting into the frames. He took them off to squint at them and try to see the undamaged wire rims before putting them back on, moving his fringe and exposing his scar as he did so.

“Holy cricket’s! You’re Harry Potter. I’m Hermione Granger. I’m not from a magical family but I’ve read all about you of course. You’re in _ Modern Magical History _and_ The Rise and Fall of The Dark Arts. _” the girl exclaimed talking a million miles a minute. “Who are your friends here?”

“I’m Tanya,” replied the blond, shaking the bushy-haired brunettes hand.

“Ron Weasley,” Ron replied through a mouth full of pumpkin pasty.

“Pleasure. You three better change into your robes. I expect we’ll be arriving soon. Come on Neville let’s look somewhere else.” Hermione said, standing and sweeping from the room.

“I-it was nice meeting you all.” the toadless boy stammered before following behind her.

“What was her problem?” asked Ron, throwing his wand back into his trunk. “Stupid spell. George gave it to me. Should’ve known it was a prank.”

“You know I think the ends of Scabbers whiskers are a bit lighter,” Harry said trying to cheer up his new friend.

“I bet I could find a potion to turn him yellow if I looked hard enough,” Tanya added.

“Thanks, guys, but it’s probably better to just leave it,” Ron said slumping over on the bench.

“Come on. We better do as she said and get into our robes. The train should be arriving in about an hour.” Tanya said, standing up to start pulling things out of her trunk.

The tree of them got changed into their robes and in no time at all the train was pulling up into the station. After a quick walk through the forest with Hagrid and a boat ride across the lake where they all got their first look at the amazing castle with all its tall towers and glittering windows, they were ushered into the gigantic entrance hall where a stern-looking witch gave a speech about the four houses. While they were all waiting for Professor McGonigal to let them into the great hall, Draco Malfoy flanked on either side by two thickset and mean-looking boys stepped out of the crowd and approached Harry looking much more interested then he was back in Diagon Ally.

“So it’s true. There saying Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts. So it’s you is it?” He asked or more like demanded.

“Yes,” Harry replied looking at the two other boys standing either side of Malfoy like bodyguards.

“Oh, this is Crabbe and Goyle,” Malfoy responded carelessly when he noticed where Harry was looking. “And you already know who I am.”

At this Ron snorted and tried to hide it with a slight cough. Malfoy’s gaze zeroed in on him.

“Do you think that’s funny do you? No need to ask for your name. Red hair, and a hand me down robe? You must be a Weasley.” He sneered before turning back to Harry. “You’ll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, Potter. You don’t wanna go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there.” 

“Ha! What on earth was that?” Tanya asked. “That was the worst attempt at making friends I’ve ever seen.”

She started giggling and shaking her head and soon had others joining in around her. Malfoy started sputtering and turning bright red which only set more people off laughing including Ron and Harry.

Before anyone could respond any further McGonigal came up and tapped Draco on the shoulder to get him to take his place back in line. She hushed everybody before leading the way into the great hall. There were gasps and exclamations of awe at the grand room with it’s floating candles and enchanted ceiling. Once the group of excited and nervous first years was gathered in front of the head table, Professor McGonigal placed the sorting hat upon the stool and it began to sing it’s song. The Professor then started calling out names seemingly at random and student came up one by one to have the sorting hat placed on their heads and be sorted into their houses. 

That Hermione girl got called up and sorted into Ravenclaw. Then it was Ron’s turn to get sorted into Gryffindor along with the toadless boy who had apparently found his toad as he was clutching it in his hands. There were several people who Harry didn’t know then Draco was called and sorted into Slytherin the moment the hat touched his head. As the crowd began to thin Harry was getting more and more nervous and found himself clutching Tanya’s hand. She squeezed his back just as tightly until her name was called and she had to let go to sit upon the stool and have the hat placed on her head. The hat seemed to take forever deciding which house to put her in but eventually decided on Slytherin. A few more names were called and then it was Harry’s turn.

Harry hurried up onto the stool trying to ignore all the whispers and swivelling heads of people trying to get a look at him. The hat was placed upon his head and promptly slid over his eyes, obscuring his view of the great hall and all the people staring at him. Suddenly there was a voice talking in his ear humming and haring about where to put him. Harry wasn’t sure which house he wanted to be in. They all sounded fine to him as long as he got to learn magic. It would be nice to be in the same house as either Ron or Tanya though. That way he’d have someone in his corner when facing this new experience. 

_ Gryffindor or Slytherin. Gryffindor or Slytherin. _ He thought.

The hat must have heard him for not a moment later it seemed to make up its mind as it shouted out “SLYTHERIN!”

There was a cheer from the Slytherin table and the hat was removed from his head to show him that Tanya was standing up and clapping and cheering with all her might. Several others at the Slytherin table were doing the same but there was just as many students looking confused and some even outright hostile. Harry did his best to ignore them and hurried to take his place sitting next to Tanya who dragged him into a hug before pulling him down to take his seat.

Looking around at the staff table Harry noticed one of the teachers staring at him with an odd sort of look on his face. The Professor had shoulder-length greasy black hair and a large hooked nose. Harry stared back at him and tried to work out what his expression meant when he felt a sharp pain emanating from his scar.

“You alright Harry?” Tanya asked, noticing him wince.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” he replied. “You wouldn’t happen to know who that teacher is sitting next to Professor Quirrel?”

“Who?”

“The one next to the man in the turban,” Harry said pointing to the end of the table.

“Oh! You mean Professor Snape,” she said, finally seeing who Harry was talking about. “He’s our new Head of House. He teaches potions. Brilliant man he is. Though quite strick I’m told.”

Just then the final first year, a pink-faced girl with blond pigtails is sorted into Hufflepuff and the Headmaster stands to signal a beginning to the feast. Suddenly the tables are filled with food of all sorts, all looking and smelling delicious. Harry had never seen so much food in his life and quickly dug in as did the rest of the students. 

There was the sound of whistling wind and disembodied laughter as ghosts began drifting in through the walls and flying around the great hall. A man in a powdered wig, carrying a sword and wrapped in clinking chains appeared at the head of the Slytherin table and began terrifying all the first years, Harry included. Apparently, he was the house ghost and was known as the Bloody Barron. He gave them a speech about striving for excellence and winning the house cup, which Slytherin had won the past six years running. 

Harry and Tanya introduced themselves to the rest of the Slytherin first years, save Draco and his lackeys. The others introduced themselves as Millicent Bulstrode a mean-looking girl who was almost as stocky as Crabbe and Goyle, Pansy Parkinson who huffed and turned her nose up at the two of them, Blaise Zambini who just seemed bored with the whole thing, Daphne Greengrass who was perky and upbeat and blushed when Harry asked her name, Theodore Nott who was shy and quiet, and Tracy Davis who only introduced herself briefly before returning to her shepherds pie.

As the feast was winding down and everyone was finishing their deserts Dumbledore stood to deliver some final notices before sending everyone off to bed and getting the prefects to direct the first years to the dormitories. The Slytherin Prefects; Gemma Farley and Marcus Flint rounded them all up and started leading them down to the dungeons making comments and pointing out shortcuts along the way. Once down in the dungeons they stopped in front of a rather unassuming patch of damp wall. At first, Harry wondered what they were doing until Gemma pointed out the snake carving along the bottom of the wall just above the floor. With the password (which was _boomslang_) the section of the wall slid back to reveal the entrance to the common room. The room itself was done in a mixture of stone and dark wood with comfy looking dark green couches and several large fireplaces. Massive windows gave a view out into the black lake and chandeliers hung from the high ceiling. The whole place looked plush and expensive. 

“All right now settle down,” Gemma called. “The password to get into the common room will be changed once a month. The new password can be found over there on the notice board as well as any important information about classes and extracurricular activities so make sure to check it often. Dormitories are just down the hall there, girls to the left boys to the right. Your trunks and belongings have already been placed in your rooms. Tomorrow at breakfast you will receive your time tables from our Head of House, Professor Snape so don’t be late! Now I want all of you to settle your differences and try to get along. Slytherins stick together. Lights out by ten o’clock but try to get an early sleep. You’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

This seemed to be the cue for dismissal as everyone started making their way towards the dormitories. Before Harry could get very far however he was stopped by Gemma.

“Hang back for just a second there Harry,” she said before ushering the rest of the stragglers away. Once the common room was empty she turned to Harry with a gentle smile on her face.

“I know this is all probably a bit much for you but I just wanted to welcome you to Slytherin house. I know we tend to get a bit of a bad reputation but I just wanted to let you know that not all Slytherin’s are like what you might’ve heard. If you ever find yourself struggling or wanting to talk to anybody you can always come to me or Professor Snape. Snape may come off as rather harsh and cold but he cares about his students and is willing to help and listen whenever any of us has a problem.”

“Thank you,” Harry replied rather touched and taken aback by this show of kindness from a stranger.

“There’s a good lad,” Gemma said, smiling and ruffling his hair. “Now off to bed with you. You can pass my message along to any of the others who you think may need it.”

With that Harry made his way over to where Tanya was waiting for him by the hall to the dormitories.

“What did she wanna talk about?” Tanya asked as the two began walking down the hall.

“She wanted to welcome me to Slytherin and tell me if I ever needed to talk to anyone to either go to her or Professor Snape. Told me to pass along the message.”

“Well, that’s great! I’m so pleased we ended up in the same house Harry,” she said briefly squeezing his hand.

“Yeah, me too,” he replied, squeezing back. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow. Goodnight, Harry.”

“Goodnight, Tanya.”

They parted ways, Tanya going left and Harry turning right and into the boy’s dorms. The room was large and rectangular with big fourposter beds lining each side wall and another huge window looking out at the lake on the wall opposite the door. To one side there was a second door leading off into the bathroom. People’s trunks lay at the foot of the beds and Harry quickly found his and pulled out his pyjamas to get ready for bed. The others were all doing the same and chose to ignore Harry. Even Malfoy who had been sending him funny looks all evening chose to mind his own business and leave Harry alone. Teeth brushed and clothes away Harry climbed into his green and silver quilted bed and closed the heavy curtains.

Snuggling down into the sinfully soft and comfortable mattress Harry drifted off to sleep with the thought that he was finally where he belonged.


	5. Lily's Message

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any dialogue or descriptions you may find familiar are taken from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I do not claim ownership of this content and all credit goes to J.K.Rowling and the Harry Potter Franchise. That being said this chapter is mainly original content so enjoy!

Severus Snape retired to his quarters at the end of the welcoming feast, his mind wiring with confusion. The boy, Harry Potter, ( _ Lily’s son _ ) was now one of his snakes. It didn’t make any sense. The boy was the spitting image of a young James Potter. His old rival would have never been caught dead interacting with a Slytherin on friendly terms yet be sorted into the same house as the snakes. He couldn’t imagine he would be pleased that his son was now a Slytherin.

_ But Lily was friends with you and he is still her son. _ A part of him whispered.

So consumed was he by his thoughts that he almost didn’t notice the young blond-haired girl sitting at his desk, sipping a cup of tea and apparently waiting for him to show up. Startled by her appearance in his private quarters he automatically reached for his wand as if waiting for an attack.

“Who are you? What are you doing in here?” He demanded, scowling down at her.

The student (for that’s what she was. He recognised her now. One of the other first-years to be sorted into Slytherin) didn’t even flinch at his sharp tone, simply took another sip of her tea ( _ Where did she even get that? _ ) before placing the cup down on his desk. 

“Hello, Professor. I’ve come to introduce myself and pass along a message,” she said smiling. 

It was a kind smile but held a spark of mischief. Like there was a joke only she knew. It was the same smile that Severus would often see on the face of Albus Dumbledore when the old fool had been scheming and thus immediately sent his hackles up in warning.

“How did you get in here? The only people with access are myself and the Headmaster.” He interrogated, his hand moving closer to the grip of his wand. No student should even know where his quarters are, let alone how to get into them.

“I have my ways,” she said cryptically. “Now for introductions.” 

At this, she stood and her form began to shimmer and shift till standing in front of him was not a young witch, but a fully grown adult Fae woman, waves of power rolling off of her like a cloak blowing in the wind. 

_ (Now let it be noted that not all witches and wizards know of the Fae, nor do they all believe in their existence, but the Prince family was an old wizard family, rumoured to have Fae blood in their lineage. They passed down the stories of the faery folk and of the High Fae rulers, often told as bedtime stories or round the fireplace at night. The Prince family believed and they passed down this belief to their children. Severus’ mother would often tell him the stories and taught him to always be careful with his words, lest he invite one of the tricksters into his life.  _

_ So when Queen Titania appeared to him in all her Fae glory he knew exactly what kind of being he was dealing with.) _

Snape immediately lowered his eyes and took his hand away from his wand. It was like facing Lord Voldemort. If he said something wrong or offended her in some way it could mean the end of him. 

"Severus Shape, heir to the Prince line. I am the Fairy Queen Titania and I come to you bearing the name Tanya LeFay.” she proclaimed. “I tell you this as a show of trust that you shall not spread my true identity. I do this in the hopes that you might hear me and the message that I bring with the knowledge that it is genuine. I have no proof which I can give you other than my word." 

Taken aback at this declaration Snape chanced a look at the Fairy Queen’s face. Her eye’s had lost the twinkle of mischief and her expression had become serious and almost grave. He was cautious and sceptical as the Fae were known trouble makers. They would lie and manipulate mortals, sometimes simply for their own amusement. However, words held power to the Fae. The Queen had given him her word. If he said the correct phrase in response it could bind her into a contract and make it harder for her to deceive him.

“What’s said is said and once spoken cannot be undone.” he intoned. Copying the words which were often repeated throughout the stories he heard in his childhood.

The Fae Queen’s slanted eyebrows disappeared into her hairline. “You know your right words,” she said in surprise. “That’s good. It should make this easier.”

She summoned a crystal ball out of thin air and held it out to him, bowing her head slightly, indicating for him to take her offering. 

Occluding heavily and with several wandless defensive spells at the tip of his tongue, Snape reached out and took the crystal. 

At first, nothing happened. The crystal was completely smooth and slightly warm to the touch. Then there was a slight tug at his magic and the crystal began to glow and emit beams of coloured light. Before he had a chance to react and drop the crystal the coloured lights began to gather and form into the shape of a person. Suddenly there in front of him was the glowing image of a slightly wavy and seethrough Lily Evans. 

“Sev,” the phantom of Lily spoke. “If you’re seeing this message it means that somethings gone wrong and I’m dead.”

Severus couldn’t help from sucking in a shaky breath. It had been ten years since Lily’s death at the hands of Lord Voldemort, thirteen years since he’d last seen her while at Hogwarts, and fifteen years since they had been on speaking terms before he’d gone and messed it all up. 

“How did you get this?” he demanded slightly breathlessly.

“Listen.” the Queen said, coming to stand beside him.

“I’m leaving you this to tell you that I forgive you and I’m sorry for abandoning you the way I did. Dumbledore told us you’ve switched sides and are working for the order now. I’m so proud of you and I hope that you’ll be careful with all this spying business. Titania’s the one helping me record this message at the minute and will be the one to give it to you in the event that I don’t make it. I’m not sure quite how she plans to go about it or what she might have told you but she is a friend of mine and you can trust her. She is bound by a Life Dept and by magical contract to protect Harry so I know that no matter what’s happened to me, Harry is still alive. She’s going to need your help Sev. Titania is a member of the Fae and is bound by Fae laws. She’ll be able to protect Harry from harm but won’t be able to reveal herself to him or tell him anything about what’s happened and the danger he’s going to be facing. Dumbledore told us the rest of the prophecy. James thinks it’s all hogwash but I’m not so sure about that. I know either way that Harry will be in danger and that he’s going to have to learn to defend himself. I know that we haven’t spoken in a while and that you don’t owe me anything, but if you could find it in yourself to help Titania protect him and prepare him for what’s coming I would be able to rest in peace knowing my son is being taken care of. I love you Sev. Goodbye.”

With that, the image faded and the crystal grew dark. 

Severus found himself making his way over to the couch. He collapsed into the chair before putting his head in his hands, desperately trying to keep his composure. Lily had forgiven him. Had known of his change in loyalties and had  _ forgiven him _ . He couldn’t believe it.

“So will you do it?”

Startled from his thoughts, he looked up to find Titania standing stiffly in the centre of the room, her eyes boring into his soul. 

“Will you do it?” she repeated. “Will you help me protect Lily’s son.”

And that was the other thing wasn’t it. Lily had asked him for help protecting the boy. It was one thing for Albus to have asked him all those years ago, but for Lily to have done so as well. To have put her trust in him after all the awful things he had done. After he’d been the one to tell the Dark Lord of the prophecy which would lead to Lily’s death. With all that she had meant to him, it was the least he could do to fulfil her final wish.

“Of course.” He answered. There was never any doubt that he would.

“Do you sware it?” she demanded.

“I sware.”

Seeing his conviction the Fairy Queen sagged with relief, the tension draining from her body. The oppressive magical aura she had been emanating receded until it was almost barely noticeable and her features seemed to soften, becoming less etherial and more real.

“Good. That’s good.” she sighed. “If you’d refused I’m not entirely sure what I’d have done.”

Snape frowned in confusion. Looking at Titania standing in his rooms, shoulders slumped and looking weary, like the weight of the whole world rested on her shoulders, he could not quite see the fearsome ruler she had been but a moment ago. In fact if not for the pointed ears, slanting eyebrows and sharpened canines she looked almost human. He knew that it was probably an act to lull him into a false sense of security but Lily had said she was a friend and the Queen had given her word that the message was genuine… 

“The first and most important thing I need your help with is getting him away from those awful relatives of his.” she continued, unaware of his thoughts.

Having not expected that he simply raised an eyebrow in question.

“The Dursleys, Petunia and her husband. Over time Petunia grew to despise Lily and anything to do with magic,” she explained soberly. “They’ve been abusing the boy. I’ve done everything I can to try and protect Harry, but there’s only so much I can do without revealing myself. He’ll have to be removed from them as soon as possible.” 

A weight settled in the pit of his stomach. For a moment his father’s voice echoed in his ears. He’d thought the boy would be safe with his relatives. Lily and her parents had all been wonderful kind people who had taken him in and accepted him as part of the family. Lily had adored her older sister. He hadn’t thought Petunia would turn out any differently than her family. Sure she hadn’t liked magic when they’d been kids but he’d thought that was just childhood jealousy. But if Queen Titania was to be believed then he’d been wrong and the boy had been suffering for it. 

He would have to confirm it for himself. Keep a close eye on the boy and look out for the signs. Get the boy to confide in someone, him or one of the other teachers. But if he’d really been suffering from abuse and no one had done anything to stop it he could have trust issues and a problem with authority. And if it’s true and the boy has been mistreated, removing him from his relatives will be another matter altogether.

“Albus will never allow it,” he replied, realising the truth of the statement. “The blood wards require him to be in contact with someone carrying Lily’s blood to remain active.”

“ _ Blood wards?! _ ” Titania exclaimed in outrage. “Is that what he thinks? Oh  _ heavens _ no! There are no  _ blood wards _ . Harry is under my protection. It’s my spells that stopped the killing curse that night and my spells which keep him safe now.  _ Blood wards _ . Honestly. As if Lily would ever use something so dangerous on her own son!”

At that final exclamation, the Queen threw herself back into his desk chair with a huff and began muttering to herself under her breath. 

When she put it like that it only took him a second of thought to realise she was right. Lily would have known that blood wards were dangerous dark magic and would’ve never even considered casting them on someone she loved, especially not her  _ son. _ He had mentioned this before when Albus first informed him of the theory. Dumbledore had brushed him off, telling him that it was the only logical explanation and that if Lily wouldn’t do it intentionally then one could have been accidentally created by her willingly sacrificing herself due to her love for the child. Albus had even supposedly confirmed it himself by fully activating the latent bond of blood charm on the boy. His frown deepened. Back then he had believed the barmy old codger without question. No one else was offering any ideas and what reason did he have to doubt the greatest wizard of all time, Albus  _ bloody _ Dumbledore. 

“Albus won’t believe that without any proof Your Majesty. You would have to reveal yourself to him as the boy’s protector,” he replied full-on scowling at this point. He remembered his manners though. He had not forgotten what sort of being he spoke to no matter how she looked slumped down in his favourite chair.

“Damn it!” she swore vehemently. “To reveal myself to a mortal in such a position of power is not an option. I’m already breaking several laws just talking to you without first going through the proper procedures. We’ll have to come up with some other way to protect Harry from the Dursleys, at least for a little while.”

The room grew silent as both of them paused to think. After a moment a plan began to form in his head. 

“Albus’ belief about the blood wards is that in order for them to stay active the boy must live with his relatives and spend time in their home.” He began explaining slowly. “The protections will only break when the boy moves out permanently or turns seventeen, whichever comes first. He can stay at Hogwarts throughout the term and during the holidays but must return to his relatives for summer break. He does not have to remain there the whole nine weeks, however. He may visit friends and stay with them as long as he returns to his relative’s house at least once or twice during the break.”

“Yes, yes of course. He’s already befriended Ron and if they stay together I’m certain the Weasley’s will be happy to have him over. I’ll have to make sure the two remain on good terms. I can invite him out to Diagon Ally and rope Jareth into pretending to keep an eye on us. Yes, yes this could work.” Titania said obviously thinking out loud. “I can handle all the details. If you wouldn’t mind just keeping an eye on him throughout the year. I sense Dark Magic lurking within the school but am unable to determine its origin or purpose.” She continued, now addressing the Potions Master.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” He replied stiffly. 

“Hm? Oh, there’s no need for all that formality business,” she responded, waving her hand through the air as if to dispell the notion. “You may refer to me as Titania but only when in private. During lessons and around school you must call me either Tanya or Miss LeFay and treat me as any other Slytherin first year.”

With that said the Queen’s form began to shimmer and shift again until in her place sat the unassuming little eleven-year-old witch that she had first appeared as. Superficially her features were still the same. Her hair was still blond, her eyes were still green, and her skin was still pale. Everything else was different, however. Her pointed ears, brows, and teeth had all become rounded and human. She was much younger making all of her features softer and less distinct. Her eyes were no longer shot through with gold and silver and her hair was duller and less wild. Her whole appearance was, in fact, duller and less wild. She was more contained, her strength and magic hidden. She almost appeared delicate, like a porcelain doll. If he hadn’t known any better he would’ve never guessed that she was anything other than human. 

He still hadn’t had time to actually stop and process the situation. Here he was sitting in his own private quarter’s, planning ways to help protect Lily’s newly Slytherin son from his abusive Aunt and Uncle with a High Fae ruler who had disguised herself as a first-year student and snuck her way into Hogwarts. It was absolutely ludicrous. If he was anyone else he’d definitely be freaking out by now. However, he’d always had tight control over his emotions, only strengthened by his skills in Occlumency. He’d long given up any illusions to his life ever being close to normal. He had to adapt quickly while working as a spy for the Order and again while teaching at Hogwarts. Just as he’d learned to readjust then so too would he now. He’d have to act carefully around the Queen, even more so than usual. She was strange and unknown and that made her unpredictable. At least when dealing with Voldemort he’d been able to guess how he’d react and prepare accordingly.

The once again disguised Titania hopped down from her seat at his desk. She straightened out her school robes and picked up her discarded cup of tea, draining it of its contents before vanishing it with a flick of her wrist. 

“I’m sure that you’ve had a long day as have I so I shall leave you to retire. I’ve given you a lot to think about and I know that you’ll have lots of questions, but classes begin tomorrow and it’s already gotten quite late. We have the rest of the year as well as the foreseeable future to get to know each other as allies. If you ever need to call me simply say my true name and title along with the sentence; ‘I wish to speak with you.’ Make sure you’re somewhere out of sight as I shall appear to you as soon as possible.” 

The Queen bowed to him in farewell before disappearing into thin air with a shower of glitter.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Harry awoke feeling groggy and disoriented. He felt like he’d had the oddest dream last night but couldn’t remember what it was about. Pulling back the curtains and reaching for his glasses he saw that he wasn’t the first one up. Blaize and Malfoy were both in the middle of getting dressed, Theo was just coming out of the bathroom, and Crabbe and Goyle were both still asleep snoring loudly. Harry dragged himself out of his ridiculously comfortable bed and went to his trunk where he pulled out his new robes. He changed quickly before halfheartedly running a comb through his incredibly messy bedhead in a vain attempt to get it to lay flat. A quick trip to the lavishly tiled bathroom latter he emerged to find Malfoy had managed to drag Crabbe and Goyle out of bed and stuff them into their uniforms. He was halfway through helping Goyle tie his tie and looked so much like an annoyed mother fussing over her children like the ones Harry had seen at school that he couldn’t help but let out a snort in amusement. 

Malfoy must’ve heard him as he whipped round to glare at Harry.

“Think something’s funny Potter?” Malfoy sneered.

“No nothing,” Harry replied, not wanting to get in a fight on his very first day.

Malfoy opened his mouth as if to reply but was interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Harry!? Are you awake yet? It’s time to go up to breakfast!” called a familiar yet muffled voice through the door.

Harry quickly ran over and threw open the door to find Tanya standing there in her matching Slytherin robes with the front half of her hair drawn back from her face and the rest flowing loose down her back.

“You ready to go?” She asked smiling.

“How did you even get in here?” came the undignified squawk from behind him which turned out to belong to Theo. “Girls aren’t allowed in the boy’s dorms, just like boys aren’t allowed in the girl’s.”

“Well I’m not  _ in _ the boy’s dorms, am I?” Tanya replied.

“Of course you are. You’re standing right here.” Blaize drawled.

“No. I’m standing in the hallway.” Tanya pointed out with a bright smile which was slightly sharklike. 

Harry burst out laughing at the other boy’s speechless expressions. Tanya hooked her arm through his and the two of them walked out into the common room where they followed a group of older students back up through the winding passageways to the Great Hall. 

Breakfast turned out to be just as good as last nights feast if a lot less exciting. Harry piled his plate high with eggs, toast and bacon while Tanya stuck to pancakes and fresh fruit salad. As time passed the hall slowly filled with students, all trickling in slowly in different stages of wakefulness. 

About halfway through Harry’s second helping Professor Snape came down the table, passing out timetables as he went. When he got to them he paused, the strange look from last night returning. He looked almost calculating. Like he was trying to look into Harry’s mind and figure out what makes him tick. Harry didn’t like it. It made him feel like some sort of strange creature trapped in a glass cage to be staired at. Like that snake he’d set free at the zoo. He turned away quickly not making eye contact and doing his best to pretend he was invisible or that he didn’t exist. Just like he did whenever Dudley was after him or Uncle Vernon was in a temper. It usually worked then and it seemed to work now as after a moment the stern-looking Professor handed him his timetable and moved on. 

The mail arrived which scared Harry nearly out of his witts causing Malfoy to snigger from behind the paper that’d just been dropped in his lap. Hedwig wasn’t among the hundreds of owls streaming into the great hall. He didn’t know what he expected. The owls seemed to be delivering the post and he didn’t have anybody who would send him anything. He would go look for her later. He knew it hadn’t even been a whole day but never the less he still missed her. He’d gotten close to the creature during their month together at the Dursley’s over the summer.

Finished their breakfast, Harry and Tanya got up to head back and get their books for their first class when Harry spotted Ron coming towards them from over at the Gryffindor table. Harry waved and jogged over to meet him halfway, Tanya trailing behind.

“Hey, Ron. How was your first night?” He asked cheerfully.

Ron got a funny sort of frown on his face. He looked Harry up and down, pausing on the green and silver of his new Slytherin tie. 

“You know everyone says Slytherins are evil,” He started, causing Harry’s heart to drop and a lump to form in his throat. He realised that this must be what Gemma was talking about last night. He was about to lose one of the first friends he’d ever had and he didn’t know what to do.

Ron continued, however, finally looking back up to meet his eyes. “but yesterday on the train you didn’t seem very evil to me.”

“Of course not,” Tanya interjected, coming to his defence. “Slytherin’s not the house of  _ evil _ . It may be the house of cunning and ambition - which aren’t actually bad by the way - but it’s also the house of determination, resourcefulness and leadership skills. Merlin himself was a Slytherin.” 

At this Ron’s face screwed up even further before he seemed to come to a decision.

“Yeah. Okay. Malfoy is still a git though.” He replied.

Harry found himself releasing the breath he’d been holding as a shaky sort of laugh.

“Oh yeah definitely.” He replied giddy with relief. “Still friends?” He asked shyly, holding out his hand.

After less than a second of hesitation, Ron grasped the offered hand and shook it. “Friends.” He replied.

They spent a moment just grinning at each other before Tanya cleared her throat and began to push them out of the Great Hall. 

“Good. Now that that’s all sorted we better get our books and get to class. We’ll see you later in Defense Ron.”

After that, the rest of the day went mostly smoothly. The castle was an absolute labyrinth with moving staircases, false doors, and lot’s of hidden passageways and secret entrances. Harry had no idea how he would’ve ever made it to any of his classes if it hadn’t been for the older Slytherins. When Gemma had said that Slytherins stick together she really meant it. Whenever he or any of the other Slytherin first years found themselves lost or unsure of where to go, all they had to do was ask one of their passing housemates and they’d be given simple directions to follow that always led them exactly where they needed to be. Some of the older Slytherins still gave him looks or ignored him altogether but it was nothing compared to the constant whispering and staring he was getting from the other houses. He did his best to ignore it and keep his head down, hoping to go unnoticed but pretending he didn’t exist didn’t seem to be working as well as it used to as the whispers still followed him. Eventually, Tanya seemed to get fed up at all of it as she began glaring at everybody they walked past. Harry wouldn’t’ve thought she’d be that intimidating, being as small and pretty as she was, but when angry those big doe eyes of hers could cut through stone and even the seventh years were startled into looking away. 

Harry was quickly learning that there was a lot more to magic then just waving a wand and saying an incantation. 

Herbology, for example, which was taught outside in one of the greenhouses behind the castle, consisted of taking care of and learning about all the strange and magical types of plants and fungi as well as their uses. The class was taught by a dumpy little witch with fluffy grey hair poking out from under her hat. She was covered in so much dirt you could barely tell the colour of her robes. Professor Sprout her name was and she seemed to always be smiling. 

Then there was Astronomy which was held at midnight on Wednesdays. They studied the stars through their telescopes and learnt about their names and the movement of the planets. Professor Sinistra was a tall woman with dark hair, skin and eyes. She always wore a spangled pointy witches hat, decorated in glittering constellations and dark olive green robes. The class was held at the top of the Astronomy Tower, the climb often leaving the tired Slytherin first years panting and gasping for breath having come all the way up from the Dungeons. 

Charms was taught by a very short little wizard called Professor Flitwick who had to stand on a pile of books to be seen over his desk. The first time Harry and Tanya entered the classroom he looked at them and let out a squeak before he toppled down out of sight. Charms classes consisted of learning the theory and a brief history behind the spell before being taught the incantation and corresponding wand movement, they would then have at least one lesson spent practising the spell before receiving homework to review what they’d learnt.

Transfiguration worked much the same as Charms in the way the class was run. Professor McGonigal, however, was nothing like the cheerful little Charms Professor. Incredibly strict and stern her whole appearance was very severe. Her black hair streaked through with grey was always pulled back in a tight bun under her stiff pointed hat and her green or tartan robes were always impeccable. She had scared him and the rest of the class half to death the first lesson when they’d all shown up to find the class empty save for a tabby cat with square markings on its face that almost looked like glasses. They’d all sat down and started talking and mucking about, thinking the Professor to be late. Low and behold once everyone had arrived the tabby cat had jumped down off the desk and turned into none other than Professor McGonigal herself. She had then proceeded to give them a lecture on how her class was one of the most dangerous and how she had an absolute zero-tolerance policy when it came to funny business.

Easily the most boring subject had been History of Magic. Harry had been excited for the class having read some of the textbook as well as a couple extra books he had bought on the subject. It all sounded so interesting and exciting until Professor Binns, the only ghost to teach a subject began droning on in his monotone voice, not even reacting when Millicent threw a bit of paper at him that passed right through his head. By the end of the period, even the Ravenclaws who Slytherin shared the class with were starting to drift off to sleep. 

The class that everyone was most looking forward to was Defence Against the Dark Arts which Slytherin shared with the Gryffindors. Harry and Ron had met up outside the classroom and began talking excitedly about what they thought the first lesson would be. The two of them sat together right at the front of the class with Tanya and Neville right behind them. The group had gotten glares from both the Gryffindors and the Slytherins but had barely noticed with how excited they were. The lesson though had turned into a bit of a joke with Professor Quirrel stuttering his way through hurried explanations and blushing and changing the subject any time anyone asked him to elaborate on his stories of fighting off magical creatures. The Defense room smelled strongly of garlic and Harry found the smell lingering for the rest of the day whenever they had a lesson.

Finally, Friday rolled around and Harry found himself both excited and filled with dread. He’d got a letter from Hagrid that morning asking him if he’d like to come to tea during his free period. He’d quickly scribbled his reply and given it to Hedwig along with some bacon from his breakfast. He was excited to get to see the friendly giant again and had invited both Tanya and Ron to come along. He was dreading the day however as Slytherin and Gryffindor had double Potions with Professor Snape first up. So far Harry had managed to avoid his Head of House. He got the distinct impression the Professor didn’t like him and Harry hated the way the dark-haired man looked at him like he was something to be studied. He sat at a bench with Ron and Neville on one side and Tanya on his other. He couldn’t help from wiggling nervously in his seat his eyes darting all over the room like he expected the Professor to emerge silently from the shadows and sneak up on him. When the Potions master did finally enter in a cloud of billowing robes the sound of the door slamming open made Harry jump so high he nearly fell off his stool. Professor Snape began the class by calling out the register. When he got down to Harry’s name however he stopped and looked up from the bit of paper and straight at Harry.

“Ah yes, Mister Potter. Our new - _celebrity_.”


	6. Flying Lessons

Harry gulped audibly and tried not to fidget under Professor Snape’s scrutiny. He could hear Malfoy and his gang snickering behind their hands as well as a few whispers from the Gryffindors. After what felt like an eternity to poor Harry the Potions Master finally looked away and continued with the roll. 

When Professor Snape began his speech about ‘the subtle science and exact art of potion-making’ Harry remembered that he’d originally been looking forward to this subject. He’d read some of the textbook over summer and everything fascinated him. He’d been cooking for the Dursley’s for years and though he never really got to eat much of the food he rather enjoyed the act and was quite good at it. He was sure that potion making couldn’t be all that different and he was good at following instructions from a recipe. Hearing the Professor talk about how potions could ‘bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses’ Harry found himself regaining some of his initial enthusiasm and hurriedly dipped his quill in ink and began scribbling down notes. The rest of the class stayed silently entranced by the Professor’s quiet voice which carried throughout the hushed classroom. Like Professor McGonigal, Snape had the ability to keep a class muted without much effort. At the end of his speech, the class continued to sit in silence. 

“Potter!” Snape said suddenly, startling Harry along with about half the class. “What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”

Harry had no clue. He may have read the book but he hadn’t memorised it like that Hermione girl. He glanced at Ron who looked just as stumped as he was. Tanya, however, looked as if she knew the answer and was trying to telepathically send it to him with how intensely she was looking at him. It seemed that telepathy was not real magic however as Harry still didn’t know what the Professor was talking about.

“I don’t know sir,” he answered quietly, looking down at his hands which were screwed up under the desk.

“Well let’s try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?” 

Again Harry had no idea. He vaguely remembered something about bezoar’s being a cure for poison but he had no idea where to find one.

“I don’t know sir,” he replied again his hunched shoulders creeping further up towards his ears.

He tried to ignore Malfoy who by this point was shaking with suppressed laughter. Ron was looking sympathetic and Tanya had turned her intense gaze onto the Professor.

“And what is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?” 

Harry scrunched up his face in confusion and finally looked back at the Potion’s Master.

“Aren’t those the same plant, sir?” he asked. He remembered something about wolfsbane having several different names and he thought that monkshood might be one of them.

Professor Snape’s eyebrows shot up and disappeared into his greasy black hair.

“Correct, Mr Potter. It’s good to see you are not completely incompetent. Monkshood and wolfsbane are indeed the same plant which also goes by the name of aconite. Asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. As for a bezoar, it is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. Well? Why aren’t you all copying that down?”

There was a sudden scramble for quills and parchment as everyone rushed to comply. Harry quickly looked away from his frightening Head of House and scribbled down the addition to his notes. Before he got very far however the Professor came up to him and said over the noise, “Well done. A point to Slytherin for actually bothering to look at the books over the summer.” Harry was so startled by the praise he looked up only to see Snape with his back turned stalking his way back up to the front of the class. 

After that class began in earnest and Snape put them to brewing a simple potion to cure boils. They worked in pairs with Harry working with Tanya and Ron with Neville. Snape swept around the classroom, his long black robes billowing around him like wings, sneering over peoples shoulders and criticizing everyone except Malfoy, who he seemed to like. Together Harry and Tanya managed to do incredibly well however and the bat-like Professor was unable to find anything wrong with their work. He simply glared at the two of them for a moment, that calculating look back on his face before moving on to snap at Ron and Neville, who he was being particularly harsh too. It seemed to be deserved however as not ten minutes later Tanya glanced over at the pair before crying out in warning.

“No Neville don’t -!”

It was too late however as Neville dropped his handful of whatever he’d been holding into his and Ron’s cauldron. Rolling clouds of acid-green smoke began to fill the dungeon. Tanya grabbed him around the waist and yanked him away from the desk as a loud hissing noise joined the chaos followed by a shout of pain. Snape rushed over and waved his wand, clearing away the smoke to reveal the destruction. Neville had somehow managed to melt the cauldron into a twisted heap of mettle. Potion was spilling out onto the floor and burning holes in everything it touched. Neville was clutching at his face and Ron was trying to cough up a lung while frantically trying to avoid the spilt disaster of a potion. 

“Idiot boy!” snarled Snape, waving his wand a second time to clean up the debris so it couldn’t hurt anyone else. “I suppose you put the porcupine quills in before taking the cauldron off the heat?”

Neville whimpered from behind his hands. Harry could see that his face had started to break out in boils. Ron wasn’t faring too much better. If Tanya hadn’t gotten him in time Harry would’ve been caught too. 

“You too!” Snape snapped, turning to Harry and Tanya. “Take them to the Hospital Wing. Another point to Slytherin for Miss LeFay noticing the mistake and trying to prevent it.” 

The group of four hurried out of the dungeons with Harry supporting Ron and Tanya helping Neville. She seemed to know where she was going and in no time at all they found themselves walking through a large set of double doors and into a room filled with beds covered in plain white sheets. They were barely through the door when the school nurse Madam Pomfrey seemingly materialised in front of them, immediately directing Ron and Neville into adjourning beds where she began fussing over their injuries, casting spells and summoning potions.

“Potion’s accident,” Tanya explained. “Simple boils cure. Added the quills before removing the heat source.”

“Oh dear. Well, nothing that hasn’t happened before.” the Matron sighed while inspecting Neville’s boil covered face. “They should both be better by tomorrow but they’ll need to stay overnight for observation. The two of you may return to class now.”

With that obvious dismissal, Harry and Tanya walked back down to the dungeons. They made it back to class in time to catch the tail end of Professor Snape lecturing the class on how dangerous potion-making was and how this incident was a perfect example of why you should always follow the instructions exactly to the letter. The entire class looked petrified and Harry was glad he had missed the majority of the teacher’s rant. The rest of the lesson was spent almost completely in silence save for the bubbling of caldrons and Snape’s occasional acidic comment. Despite the upset Harry and Tanya still managed to produce an almost perfect potion which they presented to the Professor at the end of the two-hour lesson. Despite himself, Snape seemed mildly impressed though it was hard to tell, he didn’t really show much in his expressions.

The pair made their way back up to the Hospital Wing to check on Ron and Neville. The two boys were already starting to look better and Ron assured him that they’d be fine. Harry felt bad about going to see Hagrid without Ron but the Gryffindor had brushed it off and promised to come along next time. 

Tea with Hagrid had been interesting. Hagrid’s massive boarhound Fang had apparently fallen in love with Tanya and spent the whole time lying half on her lap and showering her with drooling doggy kisses. Hagrid had tried to get him off her but Tanya didn’t seem to mind so Hagrid had let them be. Harry had told Hagrid all about his classes and how he was liking the school. Hagrid was a very good listener and often added in his own comments and anecdotes about this teacher or that subject. He’d even referred to the aged caretaker Mr Filch as ‘that old git’ which had delighted Harry to no end as he’d already had several run in’s with him and his cat. Filch knew all the secret passageways and short cuts and would seem to pop out of nowhere whenever he suspected students were getting up to trouble. His favourite pass time seemed to be terrifying the first years and he kept threatening to hang people from the ceiling by their thumbs. Harry had asked Hagrid about Snape and the strange feelings he’d been getting from the teacher but Hagrid had quickly changed the subject. Even stranger though was when Harry spotted a copy of the Daily Prophet that talked about a break-in at Gringgots the day he and Hagrid had been there. He’d pointed it out to Hagrid who had refused to meet his eyes and began acting incredibly suspicious. Harry had found himself wondering what had been in that package Hagrid had picked up from the bank and if that was what the thief had been looking for. 

He was still pondering this the next morning when he saw the other Slytherin first years crowded around the notice board in the common room.

“What’s with all the fuss?” He asked Theo who was standing at the back of the group.

“Flying lessons are starting next week. The notice just went up this morning.” the shy boy replied, pointing to a poster with a picture of a broomstick flying through the air.

Suddenly all thoughts of Hagrid and mysterious packages left his mind as all his attention focused on the notice board. He’d been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else. Quickly making his way to the front of the crowd he looked up at the brightly coloured notice. It looked like Slytherin would be sharing lessons with Gryffindor. That meant Harry would get to be with Ron and the two of them could learn to fly together.

“ _ Finally. _ ” drawled Malfoy. “I still think it’s ridiculous that first years can’t have their own brooms. Next year I’m going to join the Quidditch team and when I do I’ll get father to by us all-new racing brooms. I’ve been flying since I was three you know. We have our own private Quidditch pitch at Malfoy Manor.”

“Ron’s got a Quidditch pitch at his house too,” Harry interjected, sick of Malfoy and his bragging. “Him and his brothers play games during the summer. He’s invited me to come play with them over the break.”

Unfortunately instead of having the desired effect of getting Malfoy to shut up this only made him snicker and turn his pompous expression towards Harry instead of Pansy.

“ _ Weasalby _ has a Quidditch pitch? More like some goll hoops made of scrap stuck in the middle of the field they live on. I heard that their house isn’t big enough to fit all of them so Ronald has to sleep out in the barn with the pigs. That would explain the smell at least.”

That was it! Harry had had it with Malfoy. He’d never thought he’d meet someone he hated more than Dudley but Malfoy just pushed all his buttons and Harry had finally had enough.

Harry threw himself at Malfoy and the two of them fell to the floor and began rolling around fighting. There were shouts from all around them, some people were trying to stop them but most were egging them on. The fight went on for a while each boy trying to gain the upper hand. Harry got hit in the face, his lip split and he could taste blood. In retaliation, he got Malfoy with an elbow to the jaw. He heard his teeth clack together and Malfoy swore, having bitten his tongue. The tussle continued until eventually one of the older students came over and hauled the two of them off each other. Marcus Flint, Prefect and Capitan of the Quidditch Team glared down at them.

“Normally fighting like this would get you two a weeks worth of detentions and a lecture from Professor Snape, but since you’re both first years I’ll let you off with a warning. There is to be  _ no _ physical fighting at Hogwarts. You can throw insults all you want but if  _ either _ of you know what’s good for you you’ll keep it at that or risk getting expelled. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes.” both of them mumbled from their seats on the floor. Still glaring at each other the two boys picked themselves off the ground and retreated to their respective groups. 

“Well, that was an entertaining start to the morning,” Tanya said as she pulled out a handkerchief and started dabbing at Harry’s split lip. 

He winced but let her fuss over him as they left the common room to the whispers and stares of the other Slytherin’s. Harry had never had anyone fuss over him before and secretly he kind of loved it. Tanya was quickly becoming like his caring older sister - even though the two of them were about the same age. It was strange but nice and Harry hoped he wouldn’t do anything to mess it up.

The first thing Ron said when he saw them that morning was; “Bloody hell Harry! Did you forget to jump the fake stairs or something?”

Tanya started giggling and Harry shook his head.

“Got in a fight with Malfoy.” He explained.

Sitting down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast Harry told Ron all about the morning’s events while Ron stuffed his face with sausages and nodded along enthusiastically. Harry and Tanya got a couple of dirty looks from some of the older Gryffindors but none of the other first years seemed to mind and Fred and George greeted them enthusiastically. The topic quickly turned to flying lessons and Ron and Seamus told stories of all the antics they’d gotten up to on brooms in the past. Tanya had never been on a broom before and nither had Neville so Harry wasn’t too worried about his lack of experience. He was slightly worried about Neville however as the boy looked just about ready to wet himself. The potions incident isn’t the only case of disaster the boy had caused. He seemed to get himself into an extraordinary amount of accidents even with both feet planted on the ground. Harry was deading what kind of chaos Neville could get himself into in the air. Over at the Ravenclaw table, Harry could see that girl Hermione was looking almost as nervose as Neville as she frantically read flying tips out of  _ Quidditch through the Ages _ . 

Malfoy just would not shut up the entire week and seemed to be goading Harry into another fight. Harry was doing his best to ignore it but would often snap at Malfoy and the two would devolve into an argument. 

Apart from Malfoy the rest of the week passed in an excited blur of constant chatter about flying. By the time Thursday rolled around half the first years were practically vibrating out of their seats. At three-thirty that afternoon Harry found himself waiting out on the grounds with the other Slytherin and Gryffindor first years. It was a beautiful sunny day and the grass rippled gently in the breeze. Perfect weather for flying. Scattered on the ground in two neat rows were the school’s broomsticks. Fred and George had been complaining about the school brooms and how they were all so old they would start to vibrate if you went too high or always seemed to veer to the left.

Their teacher, Madam Hootch arrived. She had short, spiked grey hair and golden yellow eyes like a hawk. With a loud blow of her whistle, the class grew silent.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Everyone, please step up to the left side of you broomsticks!”

There was some quiet shuffling as everyone chose a broom. Harry ended up between Tracy and Daphne with Ron and Neville across from him. Tanya was a little ways down the line next to Theo and Malfoy was right at the end with Crabbe and Goyle. 

“Good!” Madam Hooch called when everyone had a broom. “Now stick your right hand over the broom and say up.”

There was a chorus of shouted ‘Up!’, Harry’s broom jumped immediately into his hand, almost knocking him off balance. Malfoy’s broom also lept into his grasp, if a little less enthusiastically. They were the only two however as all the other brooms stayed resolutely on the ground. Some of them were moving a bit and Tanya’s even seemed to hover for a second but it took a few more tries till anyone else managed to get their brooms to obey. Ron’s broom lifted suddenly and smacked him in the nose before falling back to the ground. Harry found himself laughing at his friend and his antics.

“Shut up Harry,” he said holding his nose. You could tell he wasn’t mad by the smile creeping across his face.

Madam Hootch then showed them how to mount their brooms without falling off the end. She then walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Malfoy he’d been doing it wrong for years.

“When I blow my whistle I want each of you to kick off from the ground hard.” Madam Hootch instructed. “Keep your broom steady, hover for a minute, then lean forward slightly and touch back down. On my whistle! Three - two -” 

Before the whistle could even touch Madam Hootch’s lips Neville began to rise from the ground rapidly. 

“Mr Longbottom!” Madam Hootch called.

It was no use though, Neville was rising like a cork shot out of a bottle. Panicked, he tried to slow down but only ended up changing direction and shooting off towards the castle. Not really thinking about what he was doing, Harry kicked off from the ground and leaned down over his broom. He shot off after Neville, the wind whipping through his robes. Neville had completely lost control over the broom and was swerving this way and that. Harry who had managed to catch up to him easily, drew up even with him and quick as lightning reached out and grasped the end of Neville’s broom pulling back on the handle and slowly bringing both of them to a stop so they were hovering about twenty feet up in the air.

“Neville listen to me! I need you to calm down. Just stay holding onto the broom and try to keep your balance.” Harry said making things up as he went along. He had no idea what he was doing but knew that if Neville continued to panic things would only get worse.

Neville let out a whimper and clung onto his broom not looking down. Harry slowly turned around and began to gently guide Neville’s broom back towards the ground and the group of first years stood watching in slack-jawed amazement. Harry had no clue how he was doing any of this but being on a broom just felt so natural. 

They touched down and Harry just barely managed to keep Neville on his feet. The Gryffindor boy was still shaking and was white as a sheet. They were quickly surrounded by a crowd of cheering students. 

“That was bloody brilliant Harry. I thought you said you’d never been on a broom before?” Ron asked.

“I haven’t,” Harry replied. It was the truth until his trip to Diagon Ally Harry hadn’t even known you could fly on a broomstick.

“Mr Potter,” Madam Hootch said, making her way to the front of the crowd. “Five points to Slytherin for rescuing Mr Longbottom.”

That caused another cheer to go up between Theo, Daphne, Tracy, and Millicent. Most of the Gryfindor’s let out a grown but it was halfhearted at best. Crabbe and Goyle stayed silent as Malfoy was glaring at him with renewed animosity. Pansy was copying Draco and Blaize just seemed indifferent (that tended to be Blaize’s response to most things Harry had found). Tanya was smiling at him and seemed quite smug.

Neville was taken off to the Hospital Wing to get a Calming Draft and the rest of the lesson preceded as planned. There were a few wobbles and minor collisions but no other incidents and before long Harry and Ron were chasing each other around the air. They’d been told to stay within a certain area and to not try any fancy tricks but had otherwise been left to their own devices while Madam Hootch helped out the kids who were having more trouble than others. Daphne and Theo were struggling to fly in a straight line and kept running into each other. One of the Gryffindor girls who had a twin in Ravenclaw kept wobbling and sliding off the end. There were others too but none of them seemed to be struggling as much as Tanya. No matter what she did her broom just didn’t seem to listen to her. At first, it wouldn’t take off, then it wouldn’t stay in the air, then it started zipping all over the place ending in Tanya falling off. Madam Hootch had thought there was something wrong with the broom so had given Tanya another one but this one didn’t want to work either. Tanya had started swearing like a sailor and when Madam Hootch had told her off she’d simply started speaking in a different language that Harry couldn’t identify. 

“ _ Stupid _ contraption! Controls don’t make  _ any _ sense!” she exclaimed in aggravation. She looked to Harry to be about three seconds from snapping the broomstick in half and then setting it on fire. 

Luckily Madam Hootch chose that moment to blow her whistle signalling the end of class. Before Harry could land however Malfoy came zooming past him, almost knocking him off his broom.

“Hey!” Harry shouted at him.

Malfoy seemed to be expecting this as he turned back around to Harry with a cocky grin on his face. “What is it, Potter? Can’t handle a little nudge? You seemed fine while saving Longbottom. Maybe you just need the right incentive.”

“What’s that supposed to mean Malfoy?” Harry asked narrowing his eyes.

“Oh look what I’ve got here?” Malfoy said while pulling a glass ball full of white smoke out of his pocket. “Longbottom must’ve dropped it during your daring rescue. I think I’ll leave it somewhere for him to find. How about on the roof?”

“Give it here Malfoy or I’ll knock you off your broom!” 

“Is that so?” the blonde asked.

Harry dove for the Remembrall but Malfoy dodged out of the way, spinning upsidedown before coming back up still holding the glass ball. Harry made a sharp turn coming back around to face Malfoy just in time to see the boy smirking over his shoulder.

“Have it your way then.” Malfoy then threw Neville’s Remembrall as hard as he could in the direction of the castle, probably intending for it to smash against the tower walls. Filled with indignant furry Harry went shooting off after the glinting projectile. There were shouts from below to land and go back inside but Harry ignored them. All of his focus was centred in on the tiny flying object which glittered in the sun’s rays. He raced after it, faster, faster. He lent down over his broom and extended his arm and… Yes! He caught it just in time to flip around and come to a stop, just barely avoiding colliding with the stone wall. He hovered there for a second barely believing what he’d just done before flying back down to join the others.

“Mr Potter! What on earth were you thinking?! I told you when I blew my whistle it was time to land! Not go flying off into a wall!” Yelled Madam Hootch as soon as Harry’s feet touched the ground.

Harry’s heart sank faster than a lead weight.

“But Professor. Malfoy took Neville’s Remenbrall! He was gonna put it up on the roof so I tried to stop him but then he threw it towards the castle and I flew after it -” 

“Enough I don’t want your excuses.” Madam Hootch interrupted.

“But it’s true Professor!” Ron piped up. “I saw the whole thing Malfoy was -”

“HARRY POTTER!”

At the sound of the shout, everyone whipped around to see McGonigal come running out of the castle. She was coming directly towards them and looked to be almost speechless with shock.

“ _ Never _ \- in all my years at Hogwarts - “

“Professor, what is the meaning of this?” Madam Hootch asked. Professor McGonigal didn’t seem to hear her, however.

“- How _dare_ you - could have broken your _neck_ \- that was the most impressive catch I’ve _ever_ _seen!_” 

“Excuse me, Professor?” Asked Madam Hootch in befuddlement.

Harry wasn’t much better off. For a second there he was sure that Professor McGonigal was going to expel him with how angry she looked.

“The boy’s a natural Seeker,” McGonigal said her expression slowly changing to wonderment. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Was that your first time on a broom Potter?” She asked curiously.

Harry nodded his head mechanically, still trying to work out what was happening here.

“If he was in my House I’d be putting him on the House team. Caught that thing in his hand just inches away from my window. Didn’t even scratch himself. Why not even Charlie Weasley could’ve done it.”

Madam Hootch just stood there blinking for a moment. Harry still had no idea what was going on and if he was going to be punished or not. Ron was standing with his mouth hanging open and kept looking between Harry and Professor McGonigal, and Malfoy was glaring at Harry and looking mildly worried. 

“Right. Well then Potter. Good catch. If you do anything like that again during my lessons you’ll find yourself with detention for a month. Class Dismissed.” Madam Hootch said, at last, breaking the silence.

As if a spell was broken the class suddenly broke out into excited chatter. Seemingly everybody came up to Harry wanting to know how he did that. Malfoy and his crew stalked off towards the castle and Professor McGonigal and Madam Hootch huddled together to one side whispering about what he’d just done. Harry was totally overwhelmed. 

By dinner that night seemingly everybody knew about what’d happened during the Slytherin/Griffindor flying lesson. Marcus Flint came up to Harry and made him promise to try out for the Quidditch team next year. He had even offered to let Harry come and watch the team during practice. Terance Higgs the current Slytherin Seeker told Harry that he planned to give up the position next year to focus on his NEWTS and was willing to offer Harry some pointers. Fred and George terrified Harry with stories of Quidditch injuries and how they wouldn’t go easy on him next year just because he was Ron’s friend. Professor Snape kept sending Harry these calculating looks all throughout dinner. Tanya was quiet and seemed to be distracted by something else so Harry found no help there.

At the end of dinner, Harry was just starting to think he’d be able to get away without anyone else trying to talk to him when Hermione caught him and Tanya at the doors. He hadn’t spoken to the girl since that day on the train but they had a couple of classes together.

“I heard what you did today.” She started off with. Ron had spotted them and was making his way over from the Gryffindor table. 

“It’s not surprising really,” she continued “It is in your blood after all.”

Harry gave her a confused look which he then shared with Ron. Hermione sighed and shook her head.

“Come on. I’ll show you.”

Ten minutes later the group of four found themselves in the trophy room. Hermione pointed to a sheild among all the different Quidditch trophies. There engraved in gold was the name, ‘ _ James Potter’  _

“Wow. Harry, you never told me your father played Quidditch.” Ron exclaimed.

“I… didn’t know,” Harry replied. 

Suddenly Quidditch gained a whole new meaning for Harry. He was determined to learn all he could and make the team next year. He would become the best Quidditch player in the school. Maybe then his father could be proud of him. Being here at Hogwarts made him feel closer to his dead parents. Like he was finally getting to know something about them other than the lies Aunt Petunia had told him.

They stayed there for a minute looking at all the different trophies and seeing if they could find anything else about Harry’s parents. Tanya pointed out the list of previous years prefects and sure enough, there they were.  _ ‘James Potter’  _ and  _ ‘Lily Evans’ _ Head Boy and Head Girl. Harry felt like he had a lot to live up to but goddammit if he wasn’t gonna at least try. 

“I’m telling you it’s spooky. She knows more about you then you do.” Ron exclaimed.

“Who doesn’t,” Harry replied. Any further response was cut off however when they all almost toppled over.

The four of them had left the trophy room and were just climbing the stairs when the staircase decided it was time to move.

“What’s happening?” Harry cried out while clutching onto the railing.

“The staircases change. Remember?” Hermione replied her tone slightly condescending.

The staircase finally came to a halt now facing a completely different direction.

“Come on. Let’s go this way.” Harry called

“Before the staircase moves again,” added Ron sounding slightly sick.

“We’re going to end up getting completely lost you know,” Tanya announced.

Opening the first door they came to the group found themselves in a dark and dingy corridor. There were no windows and cobwebs hung from every corner. 

“Does anybody else feel like we shouldn’t be here?” Ron asked looking around at the thick layer of dust that covered every surface.

“Well, this is the third floor,” Tanya observed.

“We’re not supposed to be here. It’s  _ forbidden _ .” Hermione added looking rather worried.

Harry took another step further into the corridor. As he did a torch mounted to the wall suddenly burst into flames, lighting up the dim hallway.

“Let’s go.” Harry urged, turning back to the door.

Sitting there in the doorway, her lamplike yellow eyes trained on the quartet was Mrs Norris. She let out an ear-piercing yowl, alerting her master to the presence of misbehaving students.

“It’s Filch’s cat!” 

“Run!”

The group of four turned tail and began booking it down the forbidden corridor, wall torches lighting up as they passed. The two boys and the Ravenclaw girl looked scared out of their wits while Tanya had a large almost feral grin stretched across her face as she ran.

“Quick!” Harry exclaimed, “Let’s hide through that door!”

The group came to the end of the corridor to a large wooden oak door with a big mettle handle. Harry grabbed the mettle ring and twisted but it was no luck.

“It’s locked!” he shouted in frustration.

“That’s it we’re done for,” whined Ron.

“Oh move over!” Hermione said pulling out her wand. “ _ Alohamora. _ ”

The door clanked open and the four first years scrambled inside. 

“ _ Alohamora? _ ” Ron asked incredulously.

“Standard book of spells chapter seven.”

_ Well, you can tell she’s a Ravenclaw _ Harry thought. 

They all waited there for a moment, their breath held and their ears pressed to the door.

“Filch is gone,” Tanya said after a minute.

“He probably thinks this door is locked,” Ron said.

“It  _ was _ locked,” Hermione replied.

“And for good reason,” Harry added.

There in front of them was a gigantic monstrous dog with three heads. It was just beginning to stir. They’d woken it up with their sudden entrance.

“Huh, a Cerberus. Don’t see one of those every day.” Tanya observed casually.

The Cerberus lifted all three of its massive heads. All six of its eyes focused in on the group of students and it began growling, slobber dripping from colossal yellowing fangs.

“AAAAHHHHH!!!”

They ran back out the door just barely managing to avoid getting bitten by one of the three heads. The door slammed shut behind them and began rattling as the Cerberus rammed its head against it, still trying to get to them. 

“What do they think they’re doing? Keeping a thing like that locked up in a school!” Ron bellowed.

“It’s quite cruel. Poor thing’s barely got enough room to move in there.” Tanya agreed

“Poor thing!? That bloody monster nearly took my arm off! Poor thing. More like poor us!” Ron replied.

“You two don’t use your eyes, do you? Didn’t you see what it was standing on?” Hermione asked.

“I wasn’t lookin’ at its feet! I was a bit preoccupied with its head’s or maybe you didn’t notice there were three!” responded Ron.

“It was standing on a trap door which means it wasn’t there by accident. Its guarding something.” Hermione explained.

“Guarding something?” Harry asked a little incredulous.

“Oh, this is getting interesting,” Tanya mumbled.

“That’s right. Now if you three don’t mind I’m going back to my common room before any of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed or worse expelled.” Hermione announced before turning around and marching off.

“She needs to sort out her priorities,” Ron said, shaking his head.

Harry agreed but was too busy thinking about what this all meant. The dog was guarding something. What was it Hagrid had said? Gringotts was the safest place in the world - except maybe Hogwarts. It looks like Harry had found out where that little brown paper package from vault seven hundred and thirteen had ended up.

“Well if you boys don’t mind I think I’m going to follow her lead and head off. Lot’s of things to do now. I’ll see you two tomorrow at breakfast.” Tanya said before skipping off and disappearing around a corner.

Harry and Ron said their goodnights and also parted ways, heading back to their individual common rooms. Harry didn’t manage to catch up to Tanya on his way down to the dungeons, nor did he see her sitting around in the Slytherin common room. Too distracted with his little revelation over the package he didn’t think much of it and just went straight to bed.

The next day there was a commotion when Madam Hootch opened the broom shed only to find that all the school’s brooms had been destroyed by a group of wood-eating forest sprites and an overenthusiastic beaver that someone had let into the shed late last night. No matter how they tried the teachers couldn’t discover who the culprit was. Everyone assumed it was the work of the notorious Weasley twins who had been complaining about the brooms and were known for causing havoc. As soon as Harry herd what happened he whipped around to look at Tanya who was grinning at him unapologetically.

“How?” he asked her as soon as they were alone.

She smiled at him, a little twinkle in her eye.

“A magician never reveals their secrets,” she replied.

In the end, the true culprit was never found and the school was forced to by all new broomsticks so the first years could continue with their flying lessons.


	7. TROLL in the Dungeons!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains scenes/dialogue fro the book/movie. All credit goes to J.K.Rowling and the Harry Potter Franchise.

Harry found that the following weeks after the three-headed dog incident passed relatively quickly. Before he knew it it was Halloween and he’d been at Hogwarts a full two months. Ever since catching Neville’s Remembrall Harry had been going along to the Slytherin Quidditch practices. The first week he spent just watching the other Slytherin’s fly around the pitch and do drills and such. He’d started taking notes about how the game was played and the different tactics the team used and such. At the end of the third practice Harry watched, Flint had wanted to see him fly to gauge whether he was as good as McGonigal had said. Harry had been handed one of the new school brooms and set loose to fly around the pitch doing as many loops and flips as he wanted. From that point on Harry was invited to join practise with the team and he and Terrance Higgs spent most of the time competing against each other to see who could catch the Golden Snitch the fastest. Harry was having the time of his life and he went along to every single practice. He became so busy with both Quidditch and his insane amount of homework that the days seemed to just slip past. The castle was more like home to him than Privet Drive had ever been and his lessons too seemed to get more interesting by the day now that they had covered all the basics. Professor Snape still gave him odd looks every now and again but Harry had decided he was going to ignore them. He liked potions and was good at the subject (not as good as Tanya but no one in their class was as good as her at potions) so Professor Snape mostly just left him alone and treated him like the other Slytherin first years. 

On the morning of Halloween, the castle awoke to the delicious smells of baking pumpkin wafting through the halls. Everyone was excited, you could practically feel the air vibrating with energy.

“Ah that’s all the magic that you feel,” Tanya explained when he mentioned it to her. “On All Hallows Eve, the barriers between the worlds grow weaker and excess magic spills across. It collects in areas of high magical concentration such as Hogwarts and Stone Henge.” 

Harry and Tanya met up with Ron at lunchtime where he told them all about what had happened to him during his Charms lesson which Gryffindor shared with Ravenclaw. He’d been paired with Hermione who had not spoken to any of them since the incident on the third floor.

“It’s Levi- _ o- _ sar, not Levio- _ sar. _ ” Ron mocked. “She’s a nightmare, honestly. No wonder she hasn’t got any friends.”

Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. She had her head down but Harry could see the beginning of tears streaming down her face.

“I think she heard you,” he said.

Hermione wasn’t seen for the rest of the day. Harry overheard the Patil twins mention that she was crying in the girl’s toilets and wanted to be left alone. Harry mentioned this to Ron who was looking more awkward and guilty by the minute but then they entered the Great Hall and all thoughts of Hermione were forgotten. 

The hall was covered in Halloween decorations. The floating candles had all been replaced with glowing jack-o-lanterns. The enchanted ceiling showed a stormy sky complete with thunder and lightning. Hundreds of live bats flew around the room or hung upsidedown from the rafters. Fake cobwebs covered the walls. As soon as everyone was seated the food appeared suddenly on golden plates as it had at the start-of-term banquet. Everything was Halloween themed and there were plenty of sweets and cakes mixed among the regular dinner foods. 

Harry was just helping himself to some of the stuffed potatoes when the doors to the great hall came flying open and Professor Quirrel came sprinting inside. His clothes were all askew and his face had gone pale and full of terror.

“TROLL - in the dungeon - Troll in the dungeon!” He screamed as he ran up the centre aisle towards the head table. “Thought you outta know.” He then passed out in a dead faint.

There was chaos. Everyone began screaming and running towards the doors. It took Dumbledore shouting and sending out purple sparks from the end of his wand to regain quiet and some sense of order. 

“Please nobody panic,” he rumbled calmly. “Prefects you are to lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately. Teachers will follow me to the dungeons.” 

“But the Slytherin dorms are  _ in _ the dungeons!” Malfoy wailed pathetically. He had a good point though. 

Before Harry could get too worried about that he was jostled by a group of frightened Ravenclaws and another thought occurred to him. He quickly made his way over to Ron with Tanya hot on his heels. He grabbed the Gryffindor boy by the sleeve and dragged him out of the flow of scared students.

“Harry what-”

“It’s Hermione. She never showed up for the feast. She doesn’t know about the troll.” Harry said pulling Ron in the direction of the girl’s bathrooms.

“Oh, alright!” Ron snapped yanking back his arm. “But we better not get in trouble for this.”

They had just made it up the first set of stairs when they heard hurried footsteps coming from behind them.

“Percy!” exclaimed Ron, yanking both Harry and Tanya around a corner so as not to be spotted.

Peering out from their hiding spot however they saw not Percy but Snape. He quickly crossed the hallway and disappeared from view. He was headed in the direction of the forbidden third-floor corridor.

“What’s he doing here?” Harry whispered. “Why isn’t he down in the dungeons with the other teachers?”

“He’s probably going to check on whatever the Cerberus is guarding. Make sure nobody uses all the chaos as a distraction to try to steal it.” Tanya answered as they emerged from their hiding spot and continued on their way.

“Can you guys smell something?” Ron asked.

Harry and Tanya both sniffed the air. Tanya let out a gagging sound and covered her face with her hand. It was the most disgusting thing Harry had ever smelled. It smelled like sweaty socks that had been left out in the sun and were starting to grow mould combined with those gross public toilets that nobody ever seemed to clean. 

Then they saw it. A gigantic looming shadow at the end of the hallway. This time it was Tanya to grab them and drag them into the shadows behind a suit of armour. The creature was hideous. Twelve feet tall with huge long arms and short thick legs. Its skin was an ugly greenish-grey like mud from a swamp and it dragged a ginormous wooden club along the ground. 

“I think the troll’s left the dungeon,” Ron whispered in horror.

The troll crossed the hallway and came to an open doorway. It hunched down and slowly slouched it’s way into the room.

“It’s going into the girl’s bathroom!” Harry pointed out in dismay.

There was a muffled scream from inside and Harry went racing in after the troll, Ron and Tanya running in after him. 

“Hermione move!” Harry shouted seeing the troll advance towards the terrified Ravenclaw.

She ducked into one of the wooden stalls but the troll only raised its club and smashed through them like it was nothing. She began crawling away towards the undestroyed sinks while Harry and Ron distracted the troll by throwing bits of broken timber at it. This didn’t work for long as the troll spotted Hermione again and began breaking the sinks, just barely missing her by centimetres. 

“Help!” she screamed as the troll swung back for another hit.

Pulling out his wand Harry ran forward and grabbed hold of the troll’s club.

“Harry don’t!” shouted Tanya but it was too late.

Harry was lifted into the air and landed clinging to the trolls head and managed to scramble up onto its shoulders.

“Harry get down from there!” Tanya shouted as the troll began to thrash around violently.

Harry’s wand ended up getting stuck up the troll’s nose which only seemed to anger it more. The troll grabbed Harry by the ankle and began to dangle him upsidedown and swing at him with its club.

“Do something!” Harry shouted as he bent in half to avoid the first swing.

“Hey, peabrain!” Tanya shouted as she threw something at the troll.

Whatever it was smashed against the troll’s forehead upon impact. The troll immediately dropped Harry who Tanya miraculously managed to catch despite having been over the other side of the room just a second ago. The two Slytherins collapsed to the ground but were both surprisingly uninjured. The troll, however, was clutching at its face and bellowing in agony. Smoke was rising from its skin and the putrid smell nearly tripled in intensity and disgustingness. 

“What do I do?” wailed Ron as the troll stumbled around blind, still swinging its club.

“Swish and flick!” Hermione yelled from her position under the sinks.

Ron pulled out his wand and pointed it at the troll waving it in the air and shouting “ _ Wingardium Leviosar! _ ” The trolls club slipped out of its grasp and began floating in the air right above its head. The troll paused for a moment, confused and Ron let the club fall. It hit the troll right in the face. The creature stumbled for a second before falling to the ground with an almighty thud.

There was silence for a moment as Hermione emerged from her hiding spot and Harry and Tanya picked themselves off the floor. 

“Is it - dead?” Hermione asked.

“I don’t think so.” Replied Harry. “Just knocked out.”

Just then Tanya whacked him on the back of the head.

“What were you thinking?!” she exclaimed. “Throwing yourself at a fully grown Mountain Troll!”

Harry was unable to answer however as just then there were hurried footsteps from the corridor and Professors Mcgonigal, Quirrel, and Snape came running into the girl’s bathrooms. Professor Quirrel took one look at the troll and let out a whimper. Professor Snape bent down and began examining the troll.

“Ah! Oh my goodness!” Exclaimed Professor McGonigal holding a hand to her heart. “Wha - Explain yourselves! All of you!”

“Well you see -” Harry and Ron began simultaneously. 

“It was my fault, Professor,” Hermione said, interrupting both of them.

Professor Snape’s head whipped up and he began looked between all of them suspiciously. 

“Wha - Mrs Granger?” McGonigal asked.

“They came looking for me. I went after the troll because I’ve read all about them and thought I could handle it.” Hermione continued, looking at the ground and lying through her teeth. 

Ron was gaping at her in pure shock and Harry wasn’t doing much better. The Ravenclaw girl was the most rule-abiding student in the whole school. To see her lying straight to a teacher was mindboggling. 

“If those three hadn’t come after me I’d probably be dead. It was about to finish me off when they arrived. They didn’t have time to go and fetch anyone.” she continued.

“Be that as it may it was an extremely foolish thing to do. Not many first years could take on a fully grown Mountain Troll and live to tell the tail.” Professor McGonigal chided them.

Harry couldn’t bring himself to meet her eyes so lowered his gaze to the floor. Looking at the ground he spotted blood and worriedly traced it back to see that Professor Snape had a large gash on his leg which was bleeding profusely. Noticing his gaze the Professor stood and quickly used his robes to cover up the sight. Tanya had noticed as well and was frowning at the Potions Master. She moved closer to him and opened her mouth as if to ask him about it but a sharp look from the Professor made sure she kept silent.

“And Miss Granger.” McGonigal continued, oblivious to the exchange. “I would’ve expected more rational behaviour from you and I am very disappointed. Professor Flitwick will be hearing about this and five points will be taken from Ravenclaw for your serious lack of judgement.” 

Hermione hung her head and there was a moment of silence as everyone seemed to absorb the situation.

“As for you three, I would like to know just exactly what happened here,” McGonigal asked, turning her glare upon Harry, Ron and Tanya.

Harry opened his mouth to reply but Tanya beat him to it.

“We arrived to find the troll looming over Hermione. Harry distracted it and ended up on its shoulders. I threw a potion at it and Harry got away. The potion blinded the troll so it started swinging its club around and destroyed the sinks and the cubicles. Ron then levitated its club and knocked it out. That’s when you turned up Professor.” Tanya explained, she somehow managed to keep all the details mostly the same while making it seem less dangerous. 

Harry didn’t know how she did it but it might have something to do with the innocent tone she was using or the fact that she was putting her big green doe-eyes to full effect. However she did it, McGonigal’s expression seemed to soften and the teacher seemed to deflate a little. 

“Well then. Five points, will be awarded to each of you. For sheer dumb luck.” The Transfiguration Professor replied.

Professor Snape seemed like he wanted to object but kept his mouth shut seeing as his house was being awarded ten points. 

That seemed to be the end of the conversation as Professor McGonigal turned and left the room. There was an awkward moment between Professor Snape and Professor Quirrel before the Potions Master turned back to the group of four students huddled together near the troll’s head. Harry had just bent down and removed his wand from the trolls nose.

“Ugh! Troll bogies.” He exclaimed, he went to wipe his wand on the edge of his robes but stopped when he saw Snape’s sneer of disgust intensify.

“Potter! For gods sake use a towel.” he snapped gesturing towards the row of towels hanging up on the wall.

“Oh, right. Sorry Professor.” Harry replied sheepishly. He quickly grabbed the towel Tanya handed him and cleaned off his wand.

“Yes, well, if you’re quite done being an idiot I will lead you and Miss LeFay back to the Slytherin common room.” the Potions Master replied acidicly. “Mr Weasley and Miss Granger you will follow us as far as the main staircase where you will return  _ immediately _ to your dormitories. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Professor.” they all chorused.

“P-perhaps I oughtta stay here.” Professor Quirrel stuttered. “M-might wake up.”

He let out a nervous little laugh as the group of students left him alone with the unconscious beast.

They made their way silently back the way they came. The group paused at the stairs which lead up to both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers. Harry and Tanya said goodnight to Hermione and Ron before following Professor Snape back down to the dungeons. 

About halfway to the common room, the silence was finally broken by Professor Snape.

“Are you both alright?” he asked quietly, not breaking stride or looking back at them.

“Pardon?” Harry asked, taken off guard.

“Are either of you injured?” Snape asked, a little snappish at having to repeat the sentiment.

“I’m fine,” replied Harry, shocked that the bad-tempered teacher had even bothered to ask.

“I think I might’ve hit my head at one point. I’m not feeling so well.” Tanya replied shocking Harry again, this time that he hadn’t noticed his friend was hurt.

At this Snape finally stoped his brisk pace and turned around to examine Tanya.

“Very well then.” He said after a moment. “Potter, continue on to the dorms. Go directly there and don’t go wandering off somewhere foolish. Just because McGonigal let you off easy doesn’t mean you’re out of trouble just yet. If I find you didn’t go straight to the common room you’ll be serving detention with me for the rest of the week. I’ll be taking Miss LeFay to the Hospital Wing.” 

“Yes, sir,” Harry replied. With a final look to Tanya who smiled at him apologetically, he made his way to the common room.

There he was greeted by the rest of Slytherin sitting around and enjoying what must’ve been food from the feast. Harry was handed a plate and sent off to find a seat among the already overcrowded common room. After eating his meal (seated on the floor leaning up against the back of one of the couches) Harry found himself completely exhausted. He quickly jumped in the shower, washing away the dust and the smell which’d come from his fight with the troll, before crawling into bed. He had barely laid his head down on the pillow before he was fast asleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*

_ We need to talk _

As soon as he’d looked into her eyes that thought had been projected at him so strongly that Severus had barely even needed his Legillimency to read it. He quickly sent the Potter boy off before heading towards the closest secure location which just so happened to be his office. No sooner had he closed the door than Tanya LeFay’s form shimmered and she was once again Titania the Fairy Queen. 

“That’s better,” she said. “Now mind telling me exactly what happened tonight?”

Snape raised an eyebrow at her. “I had thought that you would be the one doing the explaining.” he sneered. It had been a long day and an even longer night. Why was it that of all the day’s something could’ve gone wrong it just had to be today?

The Queen frowned at him for a moment but some of what he was thinking must have shown on his face. Instead of objecting she simply crossed further into the room and took a seat in one of the chairs that sat by the fireplace. The fire roared to life, chasing away the chill from the dungeons. She gestured to the other chair and after a seconds hesitation, he went over and sat.

“The Ravenclaw girl had been in the bathroom crying all afternoon after something Mr Weasley said to Harry and I.” Titania began. “Harry felt bad about it and wanted to warn her about the troll. None of us expected to find that the troll had left the dungeons. Harry ran in after the troll and tried to stop it from killing the Granger girl only to end up getting himself in danger. The troll had him by the ankle so I threw one of my crystal balls at the troll then caught him before he could hit the ground. The Weasley boy used a levitation spell to knock the troll out with its own club and then the Granger girl lied to try and get Harry, Ron, and I out of trouble. Now would you care to tell me how exactly a Mountain Troll found it’s way into the castle not to mention onto the second floor when it was supposedly in the dungeons?”

For most of her little speech, the Queen had been calm and seemingly unaffected. By the end of her question however, her voice had been raised and her eyes seemed to almost glow in righteous anger. She was furious. He would have to tread very carefully here or risk almost certain death.

“Nothing is known for certain,” He began cautiously. “But I suspect that Quirinus Quirrell let the troll in as a distraction. He attempted to steal the object which is currently being hidden within the castle.”

Titania’s gaze sharpened and her eyes narrowed.

“Ah, yes. Do you mean this?” she asked.

She then proceeded to wave her hand through the air and then suddenly there was the stone. It was blood red and fit perfectly in the palm of her hand. The Philosophers Stone.

“Wha - How did you -” He began, he was completely shocked into near speechlessness.

“Yes yes, I took the stone.” Titania dismissed waving her hand through the air. She held the stone up between two fingers. It glittered in the light of the fire. She then tossed the stone up into the air for it to land solidly in his lap.

“You’re returning it? Just like that?” he asked curiously while slipping the stone into his pocket. He would return it to its hiding place as soon as the Queen left him for the night. 

“I have no use for the stone. I took it as mere curiosity to see what would happen. Harry stumbled upon the Cerberus week’s ago. It was only the work of a moment to go back and discover what the beast was guarding.”

“Potter knows about the stone?” Snape asked sharply.

“No not the stone, but he knows of the Cerberus and that it is guarding something. He was there the day Hagrid retrieved the stone from the vault and he knows the vault was broken into later that same day. It’s only a matter of time before he works out someone is trying to steal it and decides to do something about it.” Titania explained.

“Why would the boy do that? He’d have to be more idiotic and attention-seeking than his father.” Snape scoffed.

“Harry doesn’t trust adults. He’s never been given any reason too. It’s why I chose to come here as a student rather than get myself a teaching position.” she replied matter-of-factly.

Of course. Snape had been watching Harry closely over the past two months and had seen the signs of abuse that Titania had mentioned. The boy was quiet and normally did his best to blend into the background and avoid the notice of the teachers. He seemed fine when interacting with the other students but had a very low tolerance for bullying and avoided making eye contact with members of the staff. He had a strong mistrust of adults and whenever he got in trouble he always looked like he was waiting for a blow or to be expelled at the drop of a hat. He also had the habit of throwing himself into situations with no regard for his own personal safety. It was a very Gryffindor thing to do and Severus hoped that being in Slytherin would cure the boy of the habit quickly. 

“That’s not the point of this conversation, however.” Titania continued, breaking him out of his thoughts. “What I want to know is why Albus Dumbledore thought it was a good idea to hide a powerful magical object in a school full of children. Yes, the school itself is well guarded but once inside, the protections surrounding the stone are mere child’s play. The Cerberus and the troll are probably the most dangerous things to get past, but once you know how to do that it’s only a matter of time and logic to get through the rest.”

Snape frowned in apprehension. It was true that the obstacles currently in place wouldn’t do much except slow most adult wizards down. That was mostly the point, however. To slow them down long enough for Dumbledore to apprehend them and send them off to the Ministry for trial. He told Titania this to which she scoffed and shook her head.

“But how is Dumbledore to know when someone is trying to steal the stone? I took the stone weeks ago and nobody even noticed it was missing.”

She had a point. But Titania was a Fae and was capable of anything beyond what an ordinary witch or wizard could do. Still, if she was able to get in completely undetected… 

“I shall bring these concerns up with Albus when I inform him of Quirrinus’s attempt to steal the stone. I’ll make sure the protections are increased.” he declared stonily.

“Do as you wish. It is not the stone I care about. It is the treat to Harry that is created by having the stone present in the school.” 

“If that’s the case,” he asked suspiciously. “Then why return the stone in the first place? Why not just take it?” It made much more sense in terms of Fae logic for the Queen to simply steal the stone and be done with it.

“I didn’t return the stone. I gave it to you,” she replied, the spark of mischief returning to her eyes. “I wanted to see what you would do with it.”

“So this was a test?” he realised, the blood draining from his face.

“Perhaps.”

Unnerved, he recognised it was foolish of him to think the Fae wouldn’t have ulterior motives in giving him the stone. He was going soft. It’d been too long since he’d had to be constantly watching his back for the possibility of an attack. 

“I want you to keep an eye on Quirrel. If he let a fully grown troll into the school while going after the stone there’s no telling what he might do. I’ll be sending my spies to watch him but there isn’t much they can do other than inform me of his plans. I’ll need you to be ready to step in if something happens and I’m unable to interfere.” 

“Of course.” He would be keeping a very close eye on the cowering Professor for the foreseeable future.

“There is work to be done. I shall send a messenger to inform you of any updates. If you need to contact me you know what to do.” With that, the Fairy Queen stood and vanished in a shower of glitter just as she had last time.

“Damnit!” he swore. It had taken him a week to clean all the magical glitter from his quarters and he still kept finding it all over the place. Now his office was covered in a fine layer of the stuff. The rug would never be the same.


	8. Quidditch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains scenes/dialogue fro the book/movie. All credit goes to J.K.Rowling and the Harry Potter Franchise.

As Hogwarts entered November the seasons changed and the world grew cold and frosty. A sort of grey pallor covered the school. The ice began to creep down from the mountains and take hold over the grounds. Hagrid could be seen most mornings tramping across the frosted lawns, bundled up in his long moleskin coat, rabbit-fur gloves and beaverskin boots. The students all began wearing their winter uniforms and soon Quidditch season would be starting. 

Harry was excited to be watching his first official game. He still went along to every Quidditch practice and got to help out with drills and exercises. As the season approached, Marcus Flint began pushing the team harder and harder. He was actually quite scary, to be honest. He was incredibly competitive and had quite a temper whenever anyone messed up. He was still willing to let Harry tag along however so Harry took full advantage and learnt everything he could about the game. 

The first match of the season was to be Slytherin vs Gryffindor. Harry and Ron had been goodnaturedly arguing and teasing each other about it all week. They were both incredibly excited and couldn’t wait to see who’s house would win. Tanya was, of course, supporting Slytherin and Ron had talked Hermione into supporting Gryffindor. The Ravenclaw girl had become their friend after the incident on Halloween and the group of four was practically inseparable. 

On Saturday morning the whole school bundled themselves up in their warmest scarfs and gloves and made their way out onto the Quidditch pitch. The stands were packed but Harry and Tanya managed to squeeze their way to the front of the Slytherin stand to get a good view of the game. Unfortunately, this had the unwanted side effect of placing them right next to Malfoy and his entourage. 

“So Potter, come to watch the game? Are you sure you’re in the right stands? I would’ve thought you’d be cheering for Gryffindor what with how much time you spend fraternising with the enemy.” Malfoy sneered.

“Fraternizing with the enemy!? We’re student Malfoy. We all go to the same school. Nobody is the  _ enemy. _ ” Harry replied. He could never understand why Malfoy had to be so  _ dramatic _ about everything.

“Of course they’re the enemy. Slytherin and Gryffindor have been rivals for  _ centuries _ .” Malfoy explained like it was a simple statement of fact and Harry was just an idiot.

“Gryffindor’s and Slytherin’s can still be friends you know,” Tanya said, her tone suggesting that Malfoy was the one being the idiot. “Did you know that Professor Snape was friends with a Gryffindor when he was at school? I suppose you think he was ‘fraternising with the enemy’ too. What do you think he’d say if I told him that I wonder?”

Malfoy went dead quiet and the colour (what little there was) seemed to drain from his face. He began to shuffle down the row and shoved passed Crabbe so he could get further away from them.

“Coward,” Tanya muttered after him.

“Is that true?” Harry asked her. “Was Snape really friends with a Gryffindor?”

Tanya just shrugged at him.

“It’s what I heard. People have been talking about having friends in different houses a lot lately. Apparently, it’s not very common, especially between Slytherin and Gryffindor. We’ve started a discussion on inter-house politics.”

Harry shook his head. He couldn’t see what the big deal was with them being friends with Ron and Hermione.

Just then the two teams walked out onto the pitch to a mix of cheers and boos from the crowd. They met in the middle and the team captains shook hands. Flint was looking especially vicious this morning and Harry knew it would be an interesting game. The teams mounted their brooms and flew up into the air to take their positions. 

Madam Hootch released the Snitch and the Bludgers then threw the Quaffle up into the air and the game was off!

The game was fast passed and brutal. The Quaffle made its way from one end of the pitch to the other twice over before anyone managed to get a goal. Lee Jordon, Fred and George’s friend, was doing the commentary and he was doing an excellent job of keeping up with all the fast-paced action. First points went to Gryffindor. There were boos from all around Harry in the Slytherin stands but they were almost completely drowned out by the cheers coming from the rest of the stadium. 

Flint had the Quaffle and was making his way towards the goals, passing back and forth with Adrian. They dodged and weaved between the Gryffindor chasers and it was looking like they’d make a goal when at the last second Oliver Wood, Gryffindor’s Keeper and Team Captain, seemed to come out of nowhere and deflect the Quaffle with the tail of his broomstick. A cheer went up from the Gryffindor’s while Harry, along with the rest of Slytherin let out groans of disappointment. 

Things continued like this for a while with Gryffindor racking up points while Wood blocked every shot Slytherin made at the goals. Flint was looking more and more enraged by the minute. The next time Wood blocked what should have been a perfect goal Flint grabbed one of the Beaters bats and hit a Bludger straight at Wood. It hit him in the chest and knocked him right off his broom. A raging chorus of shouts and boos broke out among the Gryffindor stands. There was a time out called and Wood was taken off the field. Gryffindor brought out one of their Substitutes but he was nowhere near as good a Keeper as Wood.

The scores were beginning to even out when at the same time Fred and George Weasley hit both the Bludgers at Flint in retribution. Flint saw them coming and had just enough time to duck out of the way and avoid getting hit but this meant that Terrance was now directly in the line of fire. He dodged out of the way of the first Bludger but the second one got him right in the jaw. There was a nasty crunching sound and Higgs went careening off into the stands. He slammed into the teacher’s box then fell to the ground like a dead weight.

“POTTER!” Flint shouted as he flew over to the Slytherin stands. “I need you to get out here! Terrance is out and we don’t have anyone else who can sub in for Seeker. Get your ass to the changing rooms and grab a broom!”

“What?! Why him?! First years aren’t allowed on the team.” Malfoy exclaimed in indignation.

“I don’t care!” shouted Flint in reply. “He’s been comin’ to practise’s. He knows what he’s doing.  _ Now _ Potter!”

Flint  really  could get quite scary when he was in a bad mood. Without really stopping to think what he was doing Harry made his way to the changing rooms where he was hurriedly stuffed into a spare Quidditch uniform and handed one of the school brooms. 

“Just stay out of the way until you see the Snitch,” Flint told him. “We can’t afford to lose you too.”

With that cheerful advice, he was off. Before he really knew what was happening he was up in the air and the game was resuming. Harry was left on his own to scan the field for any sign of the Golden Snitch.

“And the game continues! Slytherin in possession of the Quaffle. In a surprise twist, Slytherin has cheated and-” 

“JORDON!”

“Sorry Professor. In a blatant disregard for school rules-”

“ _ Jordon I’m warning you- _ ”

“All right, all right. Due to  _ unfortunate circumstances _ , Slytherin has been given special permission to allow a  _ first _ year, Harry Potter to sub in as their Seeker. This decision is highly unusual as first years are normally not allowed to play for their house teams. At only eleven this makes Potter the youngest player in over a century. Let’s see how he will compete against Gryffindor’s Seeker Kenneth Towler.”

Hearing this Harry grew more and more nervous. He didn’t like being in the spotlight like this and hadn’t been planning on joining the team until next year. Just being thrown straight into a game like this with no warning was really stressing him out.

Harry tried his best to just drown out the crowd and focus on finding the Snitch. It was a few minutes before he saw anything and that turned out to just be the sun glinting off one of the Weasley twins watches. Gryffindor had just scored another goal when finally Harry spotted it flitting around over by the teacher’s box.

Harry dove for the Snitch. Before he could get close enough to grab it his broom suddenly jerked sharply to the left. Harry held on tightly with both his hands and legs as the broom began to lurch wildly from side to side. He tried desperately to get control of the broom but nothing was working. Harry had never had trouble flying a broom before. He had no idea what was happening. All he could do was hold on as the broom bucked and swerved, trying to throw him off.

Down in the stands, the crowd began to notice what was happening. 

“What’s wrong with Harry’s broom?” Ron asked anxiously.

Hagrid who had come up from his hut to watch the game peered through his binoculars with a frown.

“If I didn’t know bet’er I’d say ‘ee lost control of it… but ‘ee can’t’ve…” 

Just as Hagrid spoke, Harry’s broom started to roll over and over in the air and gave a wild jerk, throwing Harry from his seat. He was now dangling beneath his broom, fifty feet in the air. 

People were now pointing and shouting. Hermione grabbed Hagrid’s binoculars but instead of looking at Harry she began scanning the stands.

“There look! It’s Snape, he’s jinxing the broom!” She exclaimed, shoving the binoculars at Ron.

“Jinxing the broom?!” Ron looked through the binoculars and sure enough, there was Snape in the teachers stand, his eyes fixed on Harry and muttering continuously under his breath.

“What do we do?!” 

“Leave it to me.” Hermione declared.

Before she could get very far however a Bludger came shooting out of nowhere straight into the teachers stand. It hit Professor Quirrel in the chest, knocking him and half the other teachers to the ground. Snape was among one of the people who was dragged to the ground in the chaos.

Harry who was hanging on for dear life, noticed that his broom had stopped bucking wildly and was now hovering calmly. He urgently began swinging himself back and forth in an attempt to get back up on the broom. For a second he felt like someone was pulling him up by the back of his robes and then next thing he knew he was sitting safely back on his broomstick. There was a cheer from the crowd and Ron, Hermione and Hagrid let out a collective sigh of relief.

At the same time over in the Slytherin stands Tanya lowered her hand and released the spells ready to catch Harry if he’d fallen. That had been a close one. Too close. Pretty soon Professor Quirrel would be experiencing far worse then the several broken ribs she’d given him with that Bludger. Oh yes. She had  _ plans _ for him.

In all the ruckus, Kenneth Towler had managed to spot the Snitch and was careening after it as it wove its way in between the stands. Harry raced after him and wove in and out, trying to cut him off. The two were neck and neck when the Snitch took a sudden dive straight down. Not willing to give up the two Seeker’s dove after it. The ground was quickly approaching. Twenty meters, fifteen meters, ten meters. Kenneth pulled up out of the dive. Five meters. Barely a meter from the ground the Snitch abruptly changed direction and began flying parallel to the ground. Harry put his feet up on his broom for leverage and pulled up on the handle with all his might. Still racing after the snitch, flying just above the grass Harry stood up on his broom and reached out his arm. He was almost there when he shifted his foot forward and sent the broom handle down into the dirt and catapulting himself forwards. He let out a yelp and felt something fly into his mouth and hit him in the back of the throat. He hit the ground and rolled a couple of times, Madam Hootch had taught them how to fall properly so he didn’t hurt himself too badly, just a couple of nasty bruises. He came up on his feet and immediately put a hand to his mouth.

He quickly spat out the small object and was completely shocked to see that he was holding the Golden Snitch.

“I’ve got the Snitch!” He shouted, waving it above his head.

Madam Hootch blew her whistle.

“Slytherin wins!” she announced.

There was a raw of cheering and clapping and the rest of the Slytherin team came and landed all around him. Flint’s grin was almost feral as he clapped Harry on the back, nearly sending him sprawling. Adrian came up and ruffled his hair and Miles was running around cheering and taunting the Gryffindor team. 

Students began to spill out of the stands. Harry was almost knocked over by an over-enthusiastic hug from Hermione. As soon as she released him he was pulled into another hug from Tanya. He was immediately filled with warmth and comfort. Being held by her was strangely familiar and reminded him of dreams he’d had of his mother singing him to sleep.

“Are you okay?” she asked, still not letting go. “That was stupid and reckless to stand up on your broom like that.”

“I’m fine,” replied Harry.

“That was wicked!” exclaimed Ron when Tanya finally released him. “That’s got to be cheating though. I’ve never heard of anyone catching the Snitch in their mouth before.”

“Excuse me.” Pansy sneered. “Shouldn’t you two be over sulking with the rest of the losers.”

“Oh leave them alone Pansy. They just want to congratulate Harry. What’s so wrong with showing good sportsmanship?” Tracy retorted. 

“Hm. While you and Potter might be fine interacting with  _ their _ kind  _ I _ don’t feel like tainting myself by hanging around  _ mudbloods _ and  _ blood traitors _ . If you must talk then do it somewhere  _ else _ .”

“Now Miss Parkinson that is  _ quite _ enough of that.” Madam Hootch said coming up behind her, Pansy was so startled she jumped about a foot in the air. “If I hear one more word like that from you, you’ll be helping Filch clean the stands. Understood?”

“Yes, Miss,” she replied bitterly. She shot a final glare at Harry before slinking off back to Malfoy.

Harry turned a confused look towards Ron who had gone red in the face and looked absolutely murderous.

“What’s a mudblood?” he asked quietly. He could tell it was some kind of insult but had no clue what it meant. 

“It’s a really nasty name for a muggle-born. ‘Bout the most insulting thing you could call someone. Means dirty blood.” Ron explained, his hands clenched into fists.

“Pureblood supremacy. Some wizards with solely magical families thinking they’re better than others. Kinda like racism. It’s basically the equivalent of a racial slur.” Tanya added. She was frowning at Pansy who was clinging to Malfoy’s arm and whispering furiously in his ear.

“Come on let’s get out of here,” Harry said. He could see Hagrid watching them from the side of the field. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Now that he knew what it meant he was just as furious as Ron. He wouldn’t put it past himself to start a fight with Pansy if she kept looking at them like that.

The group of four made their way over to Hagrid. Harry was stopped along the way and congratulated by about half the people they passed. The Gryffindor’s kept sending him dirty looks while the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs seemed to be divided about fifty-fifty. 

Harry quickly ducked into the changing room to get back into his regular robes and then they were all off to Hagrid’s hut for a cup of tea.

Once everyone had found a seat and Tanya had been thoroughly slobbered on by an overexcited Fang the conversation drew to what had gone wrong with Harry’s broomstick.

“It was Snape.” Ron began explaining. “Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broom.”

“Snape?!” Tanya asked disbelievingly. “No no no you’ve got it all wrong. It wasn’t Snape that put a curse on Harry’s broom. It was Quirrel.”

“Quirrel? But that doesn’t make any sense. I know a spell when I see one.” Hermione explained. “I’ve read all about them. You’ve got to keep eye contact and Snape wasn’t blinking.”

“Neither was Quirrel.” Tanya rebutted. “Didn’t you see him muttering behind his hand? Plus the spell ended when that Bludger came and knocked him over, breaking his concentration.”

“Snape was also knocked over by the Bludger,” Hermione argued. “Plus what reason dose Quirrel have to curse Harry? The man’s practically afraid of his own shadow. He’s completely harmless. Snape never liked Harry. And didn’t you notice he’s been limping lately?”

“Now ‘ang on a minute,” Hagrid said, finally seeing his chance to interrupt. “Quirrel an’ Snape are both Hogwart’s teachers.”

Both Tanya and Hermione ignored him, however, continuing as if they hadn’t heard him.

“Limping? What’s that got to do with anything?” Tanya asked.

“He only started limping after Halloween! Harry. Tell her what you told me.” Hermione insisted, turning her sharp gaze onto Harry.

Harry didn’t want to get involved but Hermione was looking at him like she would start yelling at him if he didn’t.

“You remember how during the troll incident on Halloween we saw Snape heading towards the third floor? Well, later Snape turned up with a big gash in his leg. We think he was trying to get passed that three-headed dog to steal whatever it’s guarding.” Harry explained. He’d told Ron and Hermione about his theory the other day while Tanya was off somewhere writing to her cousin.

“How do you know about Fluffy?” Hagrid asked, nearly dropping his teapot.

“ _ Fluffy? _ ” they all asked in shock.

“That thing has a  _ name? _ ”

“‘Course ‘ee’s got a name. ‘Ee’s mine. I brought ‘im off a Greek faller I met down the pub las’ year. I lent ‘im to Dumbledore to guard the…”

“Yes?” Harry asked eagerly.

“I shouldn’ta said tha’. No more questions! Don’t ask any more questions! Tha’s top-secret tha’ is.” said Hagrid gruffly.

“But Hagrid, whatever Fluffy’s guarding Snape’s trying to  _ steal _ it.” Harry implored.

“Codswallop!” said Hagrid.

“Your all being ridiculous!” Tanya exclaimed. “ _ Snape’s _ not trying to steal anything. He’s been a teacher here at Hogwarts for almost a decade. He’s one of the people who Dumbledore trusts the most. Why I bet he’s had a hundred chances to steal whatever it is Fluffy’s guarding.”

“Then why did he just try to kill Harry?” Hermione argued back.

“Oh for the last time that was Quirrel! Not Snape!” Tanya yelled.

“I’m tellin’ both of yeh, yer wrong!” Hagrid said hotly. “Now you listen to me. All four of yeh. You’re meddlin’ in things that ought not to be meddled in. It’s dangerous. What tha’ dog is guardin’ is strictly between Professor Dumbledore an’ Nicolas Flamel.”

“Nicolas Flamel?” Harry asked.

Tanya facepalmed and Hagrid looked furious with himself.

“I shouldn’ta said tha’. I should not have said tha’.”

*~*~*~*~*~*

Jareth sat lounging upon his throne in the castle beyond the Goblin City. Through the window, he could see the walls of the Labyrinth stretching out for miles around. Magic sang in the air and the Goblins danced and drank to their heart's content. A ripple in reality signalled the arrival of a visitor.

“Titania. What brings you here to my humble abode?” The Goblin King drawled, sweeping into a graceful bow with his arms spread wide and his trademark smirk plastered on his handsome face.

“Jareth. Must you do this every time I come to visit? After twelve centuries it does begin to get a little old.” The Fairy Queen replied, smiling at his playful teasing.

“Why cousin you wound me! I am only trying to show the respect My Lady deserves.”

Titania snorted at this.

“The day the Goblin King starts showing respect is the day I start listening to my Husband. And we both know that’s never going to happen. Now clear the room would you?"

Jareth wandered over and turned to the room at large. The room was still full of galavanting Goblins of all shapes and sizes. A stray chicken tried to make an escape only to be caught before it could reach the window.

"Well? You heard her. GET OUT!" he commanded.

Goblins went scrambling in all directions. In less than a minute the throne room was empty of all living beings save for Titania and the King.

“That's better. Now, what are you doing here? What is it you want from me this time?” Jareth asked casually. 

“Can’t a woman simply visit her favourite relative? Why is it I have to want something?” Tanya responded pretending to be innocent.

Jareth just crossed his arms and gave her a  _ look _ . 

“Oh fine, you caught me. I want you to help me send nightmares to one of my enemies. You are the King of Dreams after all.” Tanya said clasping her hands in front of her chest. Flattery tended to work well on Jareth. His ego was almost as big as his hair. 

“Hm, and what will you offer me in return? I do not owe you any favours at the moment. Our last Debt was paid off back in 1896.” 

Tanya deflated somewhat. She'd forgotten about '96. It was so hard to keep track of everything some days. 

“Fine. I’ll owe you a Debt of Gratitude. Same deal as usual. You may call in the Favor anytime for something you consider to be of equal value.”

“Done. Now, who's the unlucky victim.” Jareth asked a gleam in his eyes. 

“A wizard. Quirinus Quirrell. He tried to damage something that belongs to me. I want him to experience pain and fear equal to that he tried to inflict upon my charge whenever he slumbers."

“Simple enough. Do you have something specific in mind?” Jareth inquired as he made his way back over to his throne to recline like the royalty he was. 

“Do as you wish." Titania allowed. "Just as long as he suffers.”

  
“Oh, this will be  _ fun _ .”


	9. Christmas!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains scenes/dialogue from the book/movie. All credit goes to J.K.Rowling and the Harry Potter Franchise.

Over the weeks leading up to Christmas Harry, Ron, Hermione and Tanya spent every free moment in the library researching Nicolas Flamel. Ever since Hagrid had let slip the name the group had been trying to find out who he was. If they could discover that then they would be one step closer to working out what it was Fluffy was guarding. Ron and Hermione were both certain Snape was trying to steal whatever it was. Tanya still thought they were being ridiculous and insisted that if anyone was trying to steal it then it was Quirrel. Harry wasn’t entirely sure what to think. He agreed with Ron and Hermione that the thought of the stuttering Professor Quirrel trying to kill Harry was ridiculous. On the other hand, Snape was his head of house and though it was obvious that the Professor didn’t like Harry he’d always treated him like he did the rest of the Slytherin students. Harry wouldn’t put it past Snape to go stealing whatever the dog was guarding but trying to kill one of his own students was going a little too far. Neither Professor seemed like they were the one to be jinxing Harry’s broom. Harry was torn.

Either way, none of them had made any progress on finding anything on Nicolas Flamel. They didn’t have any clues apart from a name which made searching incredibly difficult. Harry was sure that he’d read his name somewhere but for the life of him couldn’t remember where. Hermione made a list of likely books for them to check and they slowly began their research. 

By the time Christmas break came around, they must have read hundreds of books with still no luck. Flamel wasn’t in  _ Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century  _ or  _ Notable Magical Names of Our Time _ . Nor was he in  _ Important Modern Magical Discoveries _ or  _ A Study in Recent Developments in Wizardry _ . Harry found that he was learning tones of new and interesting things about the Wizarding World but unfortunately none of it related to what Fluffy might be guarding.

On the last day of school before classes ended for the break, Harry, Ron and Tanya ran into Hagrid while coming out of Potions. He was carrying a ginormous fir tree which almost completely hid even his large build. Only his feet could be seen sticking out from the bottom.

“Need any help there Hagrid?” Ron asked, poking his head threw the branches.

“Nah. I’m alright by me’self.”

“You sure Hagrid? That looks pretty heavy. I’m stronger than I look you know.” Tanya added.

“Would you mind moving out of the way? You’re blocking the whole corridor.” Malfoy drawled coldly from behind them. “Are you trying to earn some extra money Weasley? Hoping to be a gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts I suppose - that hut of Hagrid’s must seem like a palace compared to what your family is used to. It’s what you get for being a bloodtraitor.”

Ron dived at Malfoy and grabbed him by the collar of his robes just as Professor Snape came up the stairs from behind them.

“WEASLEY!”

Ron let go of the front of Malfoy’s robes and took a step back.

“He was provoked, Professor Snape.” defended Hagrid, sticking his face out from behind the branches. “Malfoy was insul’in ‘is family.”

“Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts school rules,” Snape replied silkily. “Five points will be taken from Gryffindor. Be grateful it isn’t more. Now move along, all of you.”

Malfoy and his entourage of Crabbe and Goyle pushed passed ruffly, knocking into the tree and scattering needles everywhere. Tanya shook her head at them and the group of two Slytherins and a Gryffindor followed Hagrid to the Great Hall. 

“I’ll get him,” Ron muttered, grinding his teeth. “One of these days I’ll get him.”

Ever since Harry had caught the Snitch Malfoy’d been even more unpleasant than usual. Sure he’d been annoying before but now he took every opportunity he could to try and provoke Harry. Lately, he’d been going on about how sorry he felt for people who had to stay at Hogwarts over the Holidays. He’d been bragging about all the things he’d be doing over the break and taunting Harry about not having any proper family. Harry mostly tried to ignore him. Snape had come round making a list of all the students who’d be staying at Hogwarts and Harry had signed up immediately. He didn’t feel even the least bit sorry for himself. This would probably be the best Christmas he’d ever had. Of course, Malfoy didn’t seem to understand this and continued to pester Harry. Ron had slowly been getting more and more sick of him as the days passed. He seemed to share Malfoys opinion on them being enemies but that was the only thing the two boys ever agreed on.

“I’m all for revenge but you can’t just go attacking him in the halls. You’ll only end up getting yourself in trouble.” Tanya pointed out. “You have to be smart about it. Your brothers, Fred and George, they seem like they’d be good at getting some proper revenge. Try asking them for ideas.”

“Now ‘ang on a minute. Don’ you go encouraging tha’ sort oh behaviour missy.” Hagrid chastised. “Now come on, cheer up. It’s nearly Christmas.”

The group made their way into the Great Hall where Professor’s Flitwick and McGonigal were busy directing Christmas decorating.

“Ah, Hagrid is that the last tree? Just put it in the corner over there, would you?” McGonigal directed.

The Hall looked amazing. All around the room stood massive fir trees the same as the one Hagrid carried. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung suspended from every wall. Two large wreaths adorned the open doors. Some of the trees were covered in fake snow and glittering icicles while others held golden ornaments and floating candles. Twinkling lights drifted among the branches sometimes moving from one tree to the next.

As the three students moved further into the room some of the lights drifted over to hover around Tanya. Up close, Harry could see that the lights were actually tiny little creatures. The creatures looked like small children with big pointed ears and buzzing dragonfly wings. Before long Tanya was surrounded by the things. She was smiling and laughing. She held out her hand fingers splayed and Harry watched in awe as the creatures began to dance around her fingertips.

“Why I ain’t never seen Fairies do tha’ before,” Hagrid commented scratching his head. 

He looked absolutely gobsmacked and more than a little jealous. Ron was staring at Tanya with his mouth hanging wide open and even the Professor’s had stopped what they were doing to stare at the scene.

“Hm?” Tanya blinked and looked around like she had forgotten where she was. “Oh yes. I’ve always found that Fairies tend to like me, especially the cute little baby ones like this lot here. Isn’t that right sweethearts?”

The last part was seemingly directed at the cloud of fairies around her. The shocking part was the tiny creatures seemed to understand her. There was a chorus of itsy-bitsy little squeaks of agreement and Harry even swore he saw some of them nodding their heads.

“That’s bloody brilliant that is.” Ron declared in wonder.

“Why thank you. Would you like to meet them?” Tanya asked.

“Yes please.” Harry agreed immediately. He’d never met a real fairy before.

Tanya smiled and placed the hand which still had several fairies dancing around it on his shoulder.

“It’s okay. This is Harry. I promise he won’t hurt you. He’s very nice.” Tanya coaxed the fairies which were hovering around his shoulder warily.

After a second, a few of the gently twinkling creatures began to drift closer to Harry. Harry made sure to hold very still. He didn’t want to risk frightening them off. One particularly brave fairy came up to hover right in front of his face. She was absolutely adorable. She had short spiky brown hair and was wairing a teeny little dress made out of woven grass. 

“Hello,” whispered Harry.

The fairy flew closer and began inspecting his glasses. Harry went cross-eyed trying to stay focused on her so slowly reached up and took them off so she could get a better look. Through his blurred vision, he could see that several other fairies had also come to investigate. While they did Harry felt something tickling his cheek and let out an involuntary giggle. After a moment Harry put his glasses back on to see Tanya beaming at him. He was now surrounded by almost as many fairies as she was. 

“Incredible. How is it you get them to do as you say?” McGonigal asked.

Tanya just shrugged. There was a twinkle in her eye like there was some secret joke that only she was in on.

Hagrid was the next to be surrounded by the fairies. They immediately began exploring his endless pockets. They pulled out all sorts of things including string, keys, a handful of loose change, mouldy dog biscuits, snail bait, a spotted handkerchief, a copper mug and a fire poker. The poker took about ten of them to lift and even then they only managed to hold onto it for a few seconds after dragging it out of Hagrid’s coat before dropping it on the ground. Eventually, they ran out of things to find and left Hagrid alone to recollect his belongings (though he never did get the bit of string back).

By this point, the fairies had grown bold enough to investigate the other people in the room. Ron had several floating around his head and was looking rather nervous. McGonigal had returned to decorating and some of the fairies had decided to help her, lifting the ornaments she conjured and hanging them in the trees. Flitwick had gotten completely distracted by the fairies and had enchanted the loose pine needles to dance around in the air with them. He was conducting the dance while humming a little tune and looked as happy as a clam. The scene had managed to attract quite the crowd. Student oohed and aahed as fairies floated above their heads.

Eventually, the fairies got tired and returned to floating around the Christmas trees. 

The next day most of the students packed up and headed off home for the holidays. Harry and Ron were sitting in the great hall playing a game of wizards chess with Tanya looking over them and correcting Harry’s moves. Harry wasn’t very good at wizards chess. Ron had inherited a set of chessmen from his grandfather and had been playing for years. He beat Harry at every game. Tanya was also quite good at the game but would give Harry advice and tell him if he did something wrong so he sometimes managed to win against her (but only ‘cause she let him). He was slowly improving however and was determined to beat Ron at least once before the holiday was over. 

A fairy drifted over to sit on Harry’s shoulder and watch the game. Every time they entered the Great Hall at least five fairies would come and hover around Tanya. Last night at dinner the fairies took turns coming up to her in groups to be fed from her plate. At breakfast, she’d taken the whole bowl of fruit salad and walked around the perimeter of the Great Hall. By the time she got back to the table, the bowl was almost empty and several fairies sat on top of her head happily munching on a cube of apple. 

Harry had asked her why she did it and she just looked at him for a second like she didn’t understand the question.

“They’re babies. Plus if I help them now then they might be willing to help me in the future.” she’d replied after a moment and that had been the end of that.

Harry had just made his next move on the chessboard when he saw Hermione coming up the aisle wheeling her packed trunk. She came up beside him in time to see Ron take his knight with a smug look on his face.

“That’s totally barbaric!” Hermione exclaimed when Ron’s queen used her chair to decapitate his knight.

“That’s wizards chess,” Ron replied, sweeping the broken pieces off the board. “I see you’ve packed.”

“See you haven’t,” she retorted

“Change of plans. My parents decided to go visit Charlie in Romania. He’s studying Dragons there you know.”

“Good. You can help Harry and Tanya keep looking in the library for information on Nicolas Flamel.”

Ron let out a groan.

“We’ve looked a hundred times!”

Hermione looked around the hall to see who might be listening before leaning in close. The boys automatically copied her posture and listened eagerly.

“Not in the Restricted Section,” she whispered before straightening back up. “Happy Christmas,” she said, turning away and taking her luggage with her.

“I think we’ve had a bad influence on her,” Ron muttered.

“Oh definitely.” Tanya agreed. “Harry it’s your move. Might I point out that Ron’s queen is in line to be taken by your last bishop?”

“What?! Damn,” Ron swore as Harry gleefully called out “Bishop to E5.”

*~*~*~*~*~*

Ron and his brothers ended up being the only Gryffindors staying for the holidays. Ron decided since no one else was there and the password would be changed at the end of the month it would be alright to let Harry and Tanya into the Gryffindor dorms. It was much warmer up in Gryffindor tower than down in the dungeons. The two Slytherins ended up camping out in a pile of pillows and duvets in the middle of the Gryffindor common room with Ron. Fred and George thought a sleepover was a brilliant idea and joined them after the first night. They spent hours sitting around eating junk food and smores they’d roasted in the fire. The twins were great storytellers and regaled the group with tails of all the mischief they’d gotten themselves up to over the years. Ron would but in every now and again to tell everyone what  _ really _ happened whenever the twins started embellishing the truth. Tanya added in a few stories of her own. Despite having been friends for almost four months neither Ron nor Harry really knew much about her past. They knew that both her parents had died in the war and that she was mostly raised by her cousin who worked with Goblins and taught her about potions, but not much else besides that. She told stories of growing up in a forest, about all the different creatures she’d met, both magical and non-magical and all the anarchy that was caused by said encounters. Turned out Fred and Geroge had some competition for who had caused the most chaos growing up. One particularly funny story involving a magical flower and a neighbours donkey had the twins rolling around the floor laughing and clutching their stomachs. Nobody got to sleep until well past midnight. 

Ron’s other brother Percy was not as happy with the situation. He was a Prefect and incredibly uptight. Every time he saw Harry or Tanya hanging out around the tower he would lecture them on how it was against the rules and he told Ron off for letting them in. He threatened to tell Professor McGonigal and get them kicked out but apparently, the twins had blackmail material on him so, in the end, he kept his mouth shut. That didn’t stop him from sending them all nasty disapproving looks and ranting on the importance of the rules though.

On Christmas morning Harry was awoken by Ron shaking him violently and yelling in his ear.

“Harry wake up! Come on Harry wake up! It’s Christmas!”

Harry began searching around for his glasses while Ron moved on to wake Tanya and the twins.

“Tanya -”

“Shake me and I’ll hide all your Christmas presents where you’ll never find them.” she threatened from beneath her pile of blankets.

“Alright, alright. Just don’t be mad if we start opening presents without you.” Ron replied before jumping on top of the twins.

“Oi!”

“Get off!”

Harry laughed as he watched his best friend get chased around the room by his two brothers who eventually cornered him and began tickling him mercilessly. Ron began rolling on the floor, giggling uncontrollably and begging for mercy.

“Uncle, uncle!” he cried between shrieks. 

Harry was so busy watching he didn’t notice Tanya sneaking up on him until it was too late.

“Got you!” she cheered as she tackled him into the pillows. Harry soon found himself in the same position as Ron. He wasn’t very ticklish but somehow Tanya managed to find his one week spot and began attacking it fiercely. He soon had tears streaming down his face and a stitch in his side from laughing so much.

Tanya and the twins finally let up and Harry and Ron just lay there on the floor for a minute recovering.

“Present time!” the twins chorused, dumping two very lumpy parcels in Ron and Harry’s laps.

“I’ve got presents?” Harry asked in awe. 

He hadn’t been expecting any presents except for maybe something from his mysterious guardian angle. He hadn’t thought about his magical guardian in months. When he’d first found out about the wizarding world Hagrid had told him that all the unexplainable things that happened around him were just his magic acting out, but Harry wasn’t so sure. Growing up he’d always felt like someone was watching over him. The warm meals he’d find hidden away in his cupboard and the small presents he’d get on his birthday and Christmas couldn’t just have been his own magic, could they? All the stories he’d heard from Ron and the other first years, both Gryffindor and Slytherin were about things like making stuff float or turning things a different colour. Small simple things. Harry thought… well, he hoped that the gifts were from his parents. That they were watching over him. They had been magical themselves and real actual ghosts were floating around the school. It had to be them. Didn’t it? 

“Well, what did you expect? Turnips?” Ron asked tearing into his own present and breaking Harry from his thoughts.

Harry looked down at the parcel in his lap. He quickly tore off the plain brown wrapping paper and pulled out the gift inside. It was a thick, hand-knitted sweater in a dark emerald green and had a large letter ‘H’ knitted across the front in a light grey wool. Slytherin colours. Perfect.

“Hey look. Mum’s knitted Harry a Weasley jumper!” one of the twins exclaimed.

“His is better than ours though. I guess she makes more effort if your not family.” the other one added.

The twins each held blue jumpers similar to Harry’s. One had a large yellow ‘F’ and the other a yellow ‘G’. The twins looked at each other, shrugged and swapped jumpers before pulling them on over their pyjama’s.

“Every year she makes us each a jumper,” Ron explained, pulling on his own, “and mine’s  _ always _ maroon.”

“That’s really nice of her,” said Harry. He contemplated the sweater for a moment longer before pulling it over his head. It was quite soft and very warm. It would do him some good back down in the perpetually cold dungeons. 

“Come on, let’s open the rest then head down to breakfast.” Tanya urged, handing Harry another package.

The group sat in a circle around the Christmas tree taking turns unwrapping presents. Harry got a large box of chocolate frogs from Hermione, some of the Weasley’s homemade fudge from Ron, a leather satchel from Tanya with an extendable charm to help him carry his school books, a hand-carved wooden flute from Hagrid that sounded a bit like an owl, a note and fifty-pence piece from the Dursley’s which he gave to Ron, and an unmarked package containing a book on Quidditch and a bookmark made out of pressed lily flowers that he was certain was from his parents. That left only one more parcel for Harry. It was wrapped in silver paper and was very light. There was no name on the card. It simply read;

_ Your father left this in my possession before he died. _

_ It was time it was returned to you. _

_ Use it well. _

_ A Very Merry Christmas to you. _

Putting the letter aside he unwrapped the strange gift. Something fluid and silvery grey slithered out onto the floor where it lay gleaming in the firelight. Ron looked up from where he’d been busy opening presents and let out a gasp. 

“I know what that is. I’ve heard of those. They’re supposed to be really rare and  _ really _ valuable.” he said in a hushed voice, dropping the box of Berty Botts Every Flavored Beans he just unwrapped from Hermione.

“What is it?” Harry asked.

“It’s an Invisibility Cloak,” Ron said in awe, everyone else stopped what they were doing to look over at the pile of glittering fabric. 

“Well go on then Harry-”

“-try it on.” the twins urged.

Harry bent down and picked up the Cloak. It was fluid and slithery, like water woven into fabric. He stood and threw the shimmering material around his shoulders.

“It is! Harry look down!” Ron exclaimed.

Harry looked down at his feet but they were nowhere in sight. He spun around in a circle trying to see his body but it was gone! He ran over to the closest mirror and pulled the Cloak up over his head and watched as he disappeared completely.

“Just think of all the mischief we could get up to with one of those Fred.”

“Oh, I know Geroge. Harry, you wouldn’t happen to -”

“Oh leave him alone! It’s his Cloak.” Ron defended. 

Harry pulled off the Cloak and made his way back over to the group. 

“I wonder who gave it to you?” Ron asked him.

“There was no name. It just said, use it well. Apparently, it belonged to my father.” Harry said. He was feeling quite strange. Who had sent him the cloak? It couldn’t have been his guardian. He’d already got their present and they never left a note. Had the Cloak really belonged to his dad? And why give it to him now? He could’ve used it back at the Dursley’s.

Before anyone could say or think anything else Percy came down the stairs looking very disapproving. Harry quickly stuffed the cloak under the pile of wrapping paper that had accumulated in the middle of the room. He didn’t want Percy seeing it and confiscating it. If the Cloak really belonged to his father then he couldn’t bare giving it up, especially so soon after receiving it. He’d never had something that belonged to his parents before.

“Will you lot please be a bit quieter. I hope you’re not planning to just leave all that mess for the House Elves to clean up.” Percy said sounding stuck up as usual. 

He had obviously come down halfway through unwrapping his own presents just to tell them off as he had a lumpy red jumper slung over one arm. Seeing an opportunity the twins jumped up and snatched the jumper from his hands. 

“Look! P for prefect! Get it on Percy come on.”

“Yeah come on Percy we’re all wearing ours. Even Harry got one!”

“I - don’t - want -” said Percy between struggles as the twins forced the jumper over his head, trapping his arms and knocking his wire-framed glasses askew.

“Now back to the dorms with you. So many presents so little time!”

“You wouldn’t want to miss Christmas dinner after all now would you!”

They frog-marched Percy back up the stairs, his arms still pinned at his sides, to gales of laughter from Harry, Ron and Tanya.

*~*~*~*~*~*

At Christmas dinner, the Headmaster waved his wand and vanished all the house tables. He then set up one large table at the front of the Great Hall for everyone who stayed over the holidays to sit together, including the teachers. Harry sat between Tanya and Ron. Hagrid sat across from Harry and took up two whole places so was also across from Tanya. The twins had insisted on all the Weasleys sitting together as a family so Percy sat across from Ron with Fred next to Percy and George next to Ron. Or at least that’s how he thought it was. It could have been Geroge next to Percy and Fred next to Ron but Harry couldn’t be sure. They had switched jumpers several times throughout the morning and he was having trouble keeping track of who was who. On Tanya’s other side sat Gemma who Harry had grown to quite like over the first term. She was very clever and always willing to help tutor the younger Slytherin’s. She had helped Harry several times with his Charms homework. Less pleasant was the fact that across from her sat Snape. He didn’t look too pleased with the situation himself, but then again Harry had never really seen him look pleased at anything. 

Once everyone had taken a seat the Headmaster clapped his hands and the food appeared from thin air as it had at the welcoming feast. Harry had never in all his life seen such a Christmas dinner. Everything and anything you could want for such an occasion was laid out in front of him. He began piling up his plate with roast vegetables, turkey with stuffing, buttered peas, Christmas ham, and rich gravy. Stacks of wizard crackers sat piled every few feet along the table. Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Ron, expecting it to be like the regular muggle ones the Dursley’s usually brought. Instead of just going off with a bang like he expected though it exploded with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them in a cloud of blue smoke. Rather than containing a feeble little plastic toy and a flimsy paper crown, out burst a propper rear admiral’s hat and several live mice. Tanya snatched up one of the mice while the others ran for cover. Harry sent her a questioning look as she stuffed the squirming rodent into one of her pockets.

“For Hedwig,” she explained. “It can be her Christmas dinner.”

On that note, Tanya offered him another cracker, this one producing a Viking helmet and a pack of cards for exploding snap. Further down the table, Dumbledore was exchanging out his pointed wizard’s hat for a flowery bonnet and a Ravenclaw prefect had donned herself a jesters hat, complete with tinkling bells. 

As the piles of crackers began to dwindle the fairies emerged from their hiding spots where they’d taken cover from all the loud noises and bursts of multicoloured smoke. They fluttered over to Tanya, one by one or in small groups. She fed them from her plate as she had been doing every day since they arrived. A couple of them came to hover around Harry so he began cutting up little bits of food off his plate for the fairies to take as well. 

“Here you go. Merry Christmas,” he said quietly as he offered some roast pumpkin to a male fairy that had come to rest on his left shoulder. 

The fairy took the food with a squeak of what Harry could only assume was thanks. He was getting better at guessing what the fairies were trying to say. He was nowhere close to as good as Tanya however who seemed to understand the tiny creatures perfectly. 

Lately, the fairies had been growing less cautious around the other students and faculty members, becoming more comfortable interacting with people other than Tanya. Harry watched as a blond-haired male fairy snuck over and stole a pea off of Hagrids plate while he wasn’t looking. Three female fairies had teamed up to start platting Gemma’s hair and a fourth was hovering around behind Snape looking like she wanted to join in too. Ron had a small group of fairies rifling through the pile of toys and knickknacks that came out of the Christmas crackers. One of the fairies had opened up the set of miniature travel chessmen and a tiny battle ensued. Ron tried to break up the fight but Fred and Geroge kept egging the battle on until Percy got annoyed and snapped at them, threatening to take house points. The twins quickly turned their teasing onto him and Ron and Harry managed to get the chess pieces back into their box.

Flaming Christmas puddings appeared near the end of the meal and Percy nearly broke a tooth when he bit into the silver Sickle hidden in his slice. Hagrid proclaimed it was good luck and gave the Prefect a friendly slap on the back which nearly sent him face-first into the table. Over the course of the meal, Harry had watched as Hagrid got redder and redder as he called for more wine. The friendly groundskeeper had gone from asking Harry and his friends about their studies to rambling on about all the amazing (and incredibly dangerous) magical beasts he wanted to keep as pets. Harry was both awed and slightly terrified. The twins, of course, thought it was hilarious and kept suggesting different kinds of creatures each more ridiculous than the last. Tanya would jump in every once in a while with comments of her own about how ‘this creature liked melted chocolate’ or ‘that creature hated nature puns’ or ‘those creatures were afraid of white rabbits’. Harry was pretty sure she was just joking but it was hard to tell with the completely sincere way she said it. Tanya had kind of a weird sense of humour but Harry didn’t mind. She was the first person to ever make an effort to be friends with him. 

After pudding, Harry and his friends gathered up all the things they got out of the crackers and lugged them all back up to Gryffindor tower. They all bundled up in hats, scarfs and gloves and raced out onto the snow-covered front lawn to have a furious snowball fight for the rest of the afternoon. Cold, wet and gasping for breath Harry finally admitted defeat when Tanya dumped an entire snowdrift on him from somewhere up in a tree. Shivering and leaving a trail of wet footprints behind them they trooped back inside to huddle in front of the Gryffindor fireplace with mugs of hot chocolate and eggnog. 

Tea consisted of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake. Harry and Ron were too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and Geroge all over the common room ‘cause they’d stolen his prefect badge. Tanya sat on the floor and would occasionally try to trip them up if they got too close. Overall this had been Harry’s best Christmas ever.

Yet no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t seem to stop thinking about the Invisibility Cloak and the mysterious letter from whoever had sent it.  _ Use it well _ the note had said. Suddenly Hermione’s words from before she left rung in his mind. Plan begining to form Harry waited till the others had all gone to sleep before pulling out the Cloak and slipping out of the common room. 

The library was pitch black and very eerie at night. Harry could barely see where he was going so lit a lamp and held it out in front of him, his disembodied hand poking out from under the Cloak. The sight was very strange and kind of gave him the creeps but he kept on going, making his way over to the cordoned off Restricted Section.

He held the lamp up to read the titles. Most of them didn’t tell him much. Those he could read were strange and ambiguous, and the rest were written in peeling, faded gold letters in languages he couldn’t understand. Some of the books didn’t even have any title at all. Figuring he was going to have to start somewhere he put down his lamp and pulled out a random book from the shelf in front of him. 

When he opened it however the book let out a blood-curdling scream. Harry shut the book and shoved it back up onto the shelf as quickly as possible but it was already too late. Footsteps came echoing from down the corridor outside followed by Filch’s voice. Harry hurriedly made sure he was completely hidden by the Cloak but in doing so knocked over the lamp which smashed on the floor. 

“I know you’re in there! You can’t hide.” Filch said as Harry quickly ducked out of the Restricted Section.

He made it about halfway out of the library before he spotted the aged caretaker looming in the doorway. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to get out without knocking into him Harry swerved into the nearest aisle and waited for Filch to walk past.

“Who is it? Show yourself!” he called as he walked further into the shelves of books.

As soon as it was clear Harry streaked off up the corridor, the book’s screams still ringing in his ears. He ran and ran until he finally came to a halt next to a suit of armour. He’d been so busy getting away he hadn’t really paid attention to where he was going and now found himself completely lost. He didn’t recognise where he was  _ at all _ . 

He turned and started back the way he’d come figuring he should retrace his steps. He turned the corner only to run straight into Professor Snape who had Professor Quirrell pressed up against the wall. 

“S-s-Severus i-i-i-I…” Quirrell stuttered, worse than normal.

The frightened Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was looking pale and shaky. He had dark shadows under his eyes that were put into stark contrast in the shadowy moonlit corridor. Harry had noticed that the Professor didn’t seem to be sleeping much as he was obviously tired and would almost nod-off in class. 

“Enough. You don’t want me as your enemy Quirrell.” Snape said. His voice was cold enough to freeze hot coles.

“I don’- don’t know w-w-what you mean.” 

“You know perfectly well what I mean. Have you figured out how to get passed that beast of Hagrid’s yet?” Snape sneered.

“B-b-b-but Severus i-I…” 

Quirrell continued to stutter but Snape wasn’t paying attention any longer. He had turned an was looking straight at Harry. Harry covered his mouth and tried to hold his breath as he realised Snape must have heard him. The Professor reached out a hand, grasping in Harry’s direction. Harry quickly backed up, not taking his eyes off the pair in front of him. Snape’s grasp missed him if only barely so the Potions Master turned back to the other Professor still pinned against the wall. 

“We’ll be having another little chat soon when you’ve had time to think it over and decide where your loyalties lie.”

Before either man could say or do anything else however Filch came hurrying round the corner carrying Harry’s smashed lamp. 

“Oh, Professors. I found this in the Restricted Section. It’s still hot. That means there’s a student out of bed.” the caretaker explained.

Panicking Harry spotted a door that was slightly ajar to his right. He squeezed through it, holding his breath and praying that it wouldn’t move or make a noise. To his relief, he managed to get inside the room without drawing their attention. Harry leaned against the wall breathing deeply and listening to their footsteps as the three men ran off in the other direction. That had been close. Too close. 

After a moment of heavy breathing and silently thanking whoever had given him the Cloak, Harry began to take in the room around him. It was an old empty classroom that looked like it hadn’t been used in years. Desks were piled up against the walls and chairs stood in a stack in the corner. Silver moonlight filtered through the dirty windows an a layer of dust covered everything in sight. However, standing propped up in the middle of the room was a large ornate mirror - strange and out of place, it looked like someone had just put it aside here to keep it out the way and then forgotten about it. As tall as the ceiling with a large, intricately detailed golden frame it looked like something out of a fairytale, like something a princess would own. Carved around the top of the frame was an inscription -  _ Eirsed stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. _

His curiosity pulling him closer Harry stepped in front of the mirror. Still hidden under the Invisibility Cloak he didn’t expect to see anything in the mirror except the room around him. When he stepped forward however he had to clap a hand over his mouth to stop himself from shouting out in surprise. He whirled around, frantically scanning the room behind him but it was empty and unchanged. His heart pounding in his throat he turned back to the mirror.

There in the reflection, he could see not only himself but a whole crowd of people standing right behind him. He looked back over his shoulder but the room was still empty. Or was it? Were these people invisible too? Was he really in a room full of invisible people and this mirrors trick was that it reflected them invisible or not?

He looked in the mirror again. Standing directly behind him was a woman who was smiling and waving. Still looking in the mirror he reached out a hand behind him. Their reflections were so close. If she was really there and invisible he’d be able to touch her. His hand only connected with air, however. She wasn’t real. It was only a trick of the mirror.

Breathing a sigh of relief now that he knew he wasn’t surrounded by invisible strangers Harry decided to take a closer look at the people in the mirror. Who were they? Why was he seeing them?

The woman standing to his left was very pretty. She had long, dark red hair, pale skin and green eyes.  _ Her eyes are just like mine _ Harry thought inching closer to the glass. Bright green, exactly the same shade as Harry’s rather than the darker forest green that Tanya’s were. Her eyes were even the same shape as his. She was crying though. Silent rivers of tears streamed down her lightly freckled cheeks. She was still smiling even as she cried and her eye’s that matched Harry’s glittered with tears and too many complex emotions for Harry to count. 

Standing next to her on Harry’s other side was a tall thin man with glasses and messy black hair that stuck up in the back like Harry’s did. He placed an arm around the crying woman and flashed Harry a brilliant megawatt grin though his hazle eyes also hid unshed tears. 

Harry was so close to the mirror now that his nose was practically pressed up against the glass. He looked back and forth between the couple and his own reflection comparing facial features.

“Mum? Dad?” he whispered, barely willing to breathe.

They smiled at him and the woman gave a jerky nod. Suddenly Harry was blinking away tears of his own. He slowly began to look around the other faces in the mirror. He saw other pairs of green eyes like his and other noses like his, his messy black hair and his glasses and he swore there was one old man who had his knobbly knees. For the first time in his life, Harry was looking at his family. His real family.

The Potter’s and the Evans’ smiled and waved at him. His mother placed a gentle hand on the shoulder of his reflection but when he reached up it wasn’t really there. He stared hungrily back at them all, one hand pressed flat against the glass. He was filled up with a powerful kind of wanting, half joy, half terrible grief. He could’ve been a part of this. He  _ should’ve _ been a part of this. It wasn’t fair.

Filled with a sudden need to have Ron and Tanya here to see this Harry tore his eyes away from his family with a whispered “I’ll be back” and hurried from the room. He found his way back to Gryffindor tower and ran inside to wake his two best friends. 

“Ron! Tanya! Ron, you’ve really gotta see this! Come on Tanya you’ve gotta see this!” He whisper shouted, trying not to wake the twins.

The moment he said her name Tanya shot up out of the blankets her eye scanning frantically to find him in the dark. Harry threw off the Invisibility Cloak and went over to shake Ron and tug the covers off of his friend.

“Harry, what’s going on?” Tanya asked worriedly.

“Uh, Harry. Stop.” Ron complained, trying to bury himself in his pillow.

“Ron! Ron come on get out of bed.” Harry said desperately.

“Why?” Ron sounded like he was half asking Harry and half asking the universe. 

“There’s something you’ve got to see now come on!”

“Harry. Harry! I need you to calm down and tell me what’s wrong!” Tanya said grabbing him by the shoulders.

Harry was still full of mixed emotions and excited/nervous energy and didn’t want to stop and explain so he grabbed the Cloak off the floor and held it out.

“I’ll tell you when we get there just  _ come on _ . I need to show you guys something.”

Seeing that he wasn’t going to talk Tanya nodded and released him to haul a still half-awake Ron to his feet. They huddled together and Harry threw the Cloak over their heads so it completely covered all three of them. It was a bit of a tight squeeze and it took them a while to work out how to walk without standing on each others toes but they managed as Harry lead them back to the room with the mirror.

“I’m freezing,” Ron complained. “Let’s go back. Why are we even out here? It’s the middle of the night.”

“ _ No! _ ” Harry hissed. “Come on we’re almost there.”

They turned the corner and came to the door. Harry pulled it open not even bothering to be quiet anymore and as soon as all three of them were through he ducked out from under the Cloak and ran over to the mirror.

“Come on! Come! Come look it’s my family.” 

There was a sharp intake of breath from Tanya who was holding the Cloak. Ron came to stand by Harry and look in the mirror.

“There see?” Harry asked as he looked at the smiling face of his mother.

“I can’t see anything,” Ron replied quizzically.

“Look! Look at them all … there are loads of them …”

“I only see you.”

“Look in properly go on stand there,” Harry said standing aside. 

“Harry I don’t think-” Tanya tried to cut in from where she was standing back by the door.

“Wow, look at me!” Ron exclaimed

“Do you see them?” Harry asked.

“No - it’s just me - but I’m different, older - and I’m Head Boy! I’m wearing a badge like Bill used to - and I’m holding the Quidditch cup! Bloody hell I’m Quidditch captain too! I look good.”

Ron tore his eyes away from the sight in front of him to look over to Harry.

“Harry, do you think this mirror shows the future?”

“How can it? All my family are dead …” 

“Then how come-” Ron began to ask.

“It’s not real.” Tanya cut in. “It’s just the mirror.  _ Eirsed stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. _ I show not your face but your hearts desire. The mirror only shows you what you want to see.” she explained sadly. She had a horrible look of grief on her face and was clutching at the Cloak, looking anywhere but at the mirror.

“How do you know that?” Harry asked quietly. He looked back at the mirror. A funny feeling in his chest.

“It’s famous. People have wasted away in front of it, dwelling on dreams that could never be or gone mad not knowing if what they saw was real or not. It was thought to have been destroyed so that no one else would suffer because of it.”

“That’s super creepy. What’s it doing here then?” Ron asked taking a large step away from the mirror. A shiver seemed to run up his spine as he shook himself as if waking from a trance created by the images he’d seen in the mirror.

“I don’t know. We should get out of here.” Tanya replied

Harry was torn. He could understand what Tanya was saying and knew that they should leave, but he’d never known anything about his family. He hadn’t even known what his parents looked like until tonight. He felt like he’d barely gotten a glimpse of them.

“Just one more look,” Harry begged wanting to commit his family’s faces to memory.

Tanya flashed him a sad smile.

“Ok. One more minute but after that, we shouldn’t come back here. If you want I can help you ask around to see if we can find any photo’s of your family. Hagrid knew your parents and I’m sure he’d be willing to help.”

“Yeah! I think mum and dad might even have a photo from back when they went to school together! I’m sure they’d be willing to give it to you if you asked.” Ron added as he slowly moved closer to the door. “In fact, I’ll write them a letter asking about it first thing in the morning. Just let us get  _ out _ of here. I really don’t like that freaky mirror and want to get as far away from it as possible.”

Harry couldn’t help but laugh at his friends’ antics and shoot them both a tremulous grin.

“Thanks, guys. Your the best.”

Harry shot one last look at the group of smiling people waving at him from the mirror. He lingered for a moment, looking into the matching eyes of his mother before turning away and joining his friends under his fathers Invisibility Cloak.

He may not be able to see his family again but with friends like Ron and Tanya maybe that was ok for now.


	10. Finally Found Flamel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains scenes/dialogue from the book/movie. All credit goes to J.K.Rowling and the Harry Potter Franchise.

The rest of the holidays passed in kind of a blur for Harry. The day after Christmas he, Ron and Tanya had made the treck across the frozen snow-covered grounds out to Hagrids hut. The groundskeeper had been slightly hungover but was glad to see them and bundled them all up in one of his oversized patch-knit blankets and handed them each a large mug of tea. It was cosy and surprisingly warm in his little wooden hut on the edge of the forest. Tanya had been the one to ask Hagrid about photos as Harry had felt too nervous and tongue-tied. Hagrid had smiled and his eyes had gone a little watery. He promised to contact as many people as he could and tell Harry as soon as he found anything. 

The next day Ron had gotten a letter from his parents at breakfast that was addressed to Harry. The envelope contained several group photos and sure enough, each one contained at least one of his parents if not both. The pictures moved and smiled and Harry watched as his father swung an arm over another boy’s shoulders or his mother turned and laughed with the rest of the group. He carried the photos around with him and would take them out every once in a while to look at his parents smiling faces. 

Hermione returned the day before term started. When told of all their adventures she was torn between horror at them being out of bed past curfew and disappointment that they didn’t find anything out about Nicolas Flamel. She was happy that Harry got to see his parents and offered to give him all the books she knew of that mentioned them but Harry was a little wary. He didn’t want to learn about his parents from a book. 

Classes started back up and things went more or less back to normal. They still spent all their spare time between classes in the library researching Nicolas Flamel. It was on one of these days when Hermione suddenly got a strange look on her face and stood up suddenly, almost knocking over her chair.

“I’ll be right back, don’t move!” she called as she raced from the library. 

Harry looked over to Ron who shrugged and went back to staring blankly at the page in front of him. Tanya had wandered off at some point and was sitting at another table avidly discussing Herbology with Neville. It was quite a while before Hermione returned but when she did she was carrying a massive book that was about half the size of her.

“How could I be so stupid!” she exclaimed, dropping the book on the table. “I checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading.”

“This is light?” Ron asked. Hermione sent him a look that was almost as intimidating as Tanya’s. Harry wondered if it was a girl thing to be able to look that scary.

“I had us all looking in the wrong section. Here it is! Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosophers Stone.”

“The  _ what _ ?” Harry and Ron asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes at them. Hearing their exclamation Tanya came back over to join them and sat next to Hermione.

“Honestly don’t you two read?” Hermione said. 

Harry took mild offence at this. Of course, he read’s. He reads almost as much as Hermione dose. It’s one of the reasons they get along.

“The Philosophers Stone is a legendary substance with incredible powers. It’ll turn any mettle to pure gold and produces the elixir of life which makes the drinker immortal.” Hermione read from the book.

“Immortal?” Ron exclaimed.

“It means you’ll never die,” Hermione replied.

“I know what it means!”

“Well technically-” Tanya began. Everyone else cut her off with quelling looks. Harry gestured for Hermione to keep reading.

“There have been many reports of the Philosophers Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist, who last year celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday.” she finished. “See? That’s what Fluffy must be guarding, the Philosopher’s Stone!”

“A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!” Harry said in awe. “No wonder Snape’s willing to face that three-headed monster.  _ Anyone _ would want that!”

“And no wonder we couldn’t find Flamel in that  _ Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry _ ,” Ron added. “He’s not exactly recent if he’s six hundred and sixty-five, is he?”

“But if the Stone is so valuable why hide it here in a school?” Tanya asked.

“Maybe Hagrid will know something,” Harry suggested. “We should go visit him tonight.”

And so with no objections that night they found themselves trecking out across the slowly defrosting grounds out to Hagrid’s hut.

When they got there however Hagrid didn’t want to let them inside which was extremely out of character and immediately put up all sorts of flashing warning signs to the four first years. The gamekeeper let them in once they mentioned the Stone but he was acting strangely. He kept hovering around the fire and wringing his hands, which were covered in ginormous oven mitts. They talked about the Stone and Hagrid told them that some of the teachers helped to protect it, including both Snape and Quirrell. Harry was just getting on to asking him about Fluffy when Tanya interrupted him.

“Hagrid.  _ Please _ tell me that’s not what I think it is,” she begged.

She was staring directly into the fire. Sitting there in an old beat-up looking caldron was a large black egg. 

“Ah, tha’, right. Well, ya see…” Hagrid stuttered growing even more nervose. 

“Wow! I know what that is,” Ron gasped, coming closer to get a better look. “But Hagrid how did you get one?”

“I won it down at the pub off a stranger. He seemed to be quite glad to be rid of it as a matta fact…” 

Hagrid was cut off when a strange sort of tapping sound came from the egg. He quickly and carefully picked the egg up out of the pot and brought it over to the table. All five of them gathered around to watch as the egg rattled and wobbled around on the table. Deep cracks began to form in the shell and something was moving inside. Ron was absolutely fascinated and was leaning in to get a closer look. Tanya, on the other hand, looked mildly horrified.

Suddenly, all at once, the shell burst open and from the remains of the egg tumbled a small lizard-like creature with leathery wings.

“Is that, a dragon?” Hermione asked half in shock.

“That isn’t just any dragon. That’s a Norwegian Ridgeback!” Ron exclaimed.

“A dragon. It just had to be a god damned dragon.” Tanya muttered under her breath.

The dragon, which Harry thought looked like a crumpled black umbrella with how big its wings were compared to the rest of its body, turned towards Tanya and growled at her. To everyone else’s shock, Tanya growled back at it. Frightened, the Norwegian Ridgeback retreated to hide behind Hagrid’s huge teacup.

“Isn’t he beautiful! Bless him he knows his mummy.” Hagrid cooed, reaching out an ungloved hand to pet the small beast. “Hello, Norbert.”

“Norbert?” Harry asked

“Well, he gotta have a name dun’t he?” Hagrid replied as the newly christened Norbert took a bite out of his finger.

Harry thought that was a very strange name for a dragon.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you Hagrid but that’s a female dragon and there’s absolutely no way you’ll be keeping her here,” Tanya stated firmly.

“A girl? How can ye tell?” Hagrid ashed with a frown before shaking his head. “Never mind tha’. O’course I’m keepin’ her.” 

Just that moment the dragon sneezed which sent out sparks, lighting Hagrid’s beard on fire. 

“Hagrid,” Hermione said, horrified. “You live in a  _ wooden house _ .”

“Well, she’ll have ta be trained up a bit…” 

“No, no! Absolutely not! Ron will be sending an owl to his brother Charlie. Charlie will take her to the dragon sanctuary in Romania so that no students get  _ burned _ or  _ eaten _ ! This is a  _ school _ Hagrid. There are  _ children _ here. This is no place for a dragon  _ or _ a Cerberus for that matter!” Tanya half-shouted. She was quite terrifying in her anger and by the end of her speech, even the cheery and enthusiastic Hagrid had been quelled.

Soon afterwards the four students made their way back to their dorms, careful not to get caught so soon before curfew. As it was by the time Harry and Tanya made it back down to the dungeons the common room was empty as everyone had already gone to bed. Harry quietly said goodnight to his still slightly steaming friend and slowly crept into his shared dorm room, being very careful not to wake any of the others. 

He was unsuccessful however as a voice called out to him while he was grabbing his pj’s.

“You ought to be careful  _ Potter _ . Don’t want to get caught sneaking around the castle after curfew.”

“What do you want Malfoy.” Harry hissed back at the blond-haired boy sitting up in bed, sneering at him.

“I want you to stay out of trouble. I couldn’t care less if you got detention or even expelled. It’d be quite nice actually. Then I wouldn’t have to see your stupid mudblood loving face every day. I do care though if you go losing points for Slytherin. We’ve won the house cup for the past six years running and I’ll not have you go messing it up now!”

Harry didn’t particularly care about the house cup at this point with everything else that was going on but he resented Malfoy for calling Hermione a mudblood now that he knew what the word meant. He was about to pull out his wand and hex Malfoy when a groan from Blaise’s bed pulled him up short.

“Oh  _ shut up _ Malfoy. It’s too late for this. You can fight each other in the morning but for now, will you both just please  _ go to sleep _ .” 

With a huff, the dark-skinned boy drew his curtains shut and went back to sleep. Harry and Draco glared at each other for a moment before both turning away. The events of the day were quickly catching up to Harry and he was soon exhausted. He crawled into bed and was asleep even before his head hit the pillow.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Severus had just laid down to sleep when his bedroom door flew open to reveal the Fairy Queen. He immediately found himself fully awake and alert despite the late hour. Over the past months, he had been finding letters delivered by the queen’s fairy messengers whenever there was any sort of development. If she was here in person it meant it was something big.

“The kids know about the Stone,” she announced, striding into the room.

Well, that was definitely something.

“... and Hagrid has a dragon.”

That was worse.

“What happened?” he bit out, standing to his full height and reaching for his robe. 

The queen had began pacing the length of his room. She paused, looked him up and down and smirked, then continued in her pacing, chewing on one of her long, claw-like nails.

“Hermione found a book mentioning Flamel. I’d been trying to lead them off track, kept them looking in the modern section but it was bound to happen eventually. We went down to Hagrid’s hut and discovered a dragon egg which hatched. One of the Weasley son’s works with dragons, I’m sending the hatchling to him but that’s not what I’m worried about.” she replied.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to absorb that  _ wonderful _ information he steeled himself to ask the obvious question.

“What could possibly be more worrying than a baby  _ dragon _ on school grounds?”

Titania gave him a look like he was being an idiot for not immediately knowing the answer to that. 

“How exactly Hagrid obtained said dragon,” she replied. He admits that was rather idiotic of him not to think of. “He’s wanted one ever since he was little. You heard him at Christmas.”

“It was hard not too,” he replied, sneering.

“Exactly. When asked, Hagrid said he won the egg off of a stranger at the pub. It’s all a little too suspicious for my liking, especially considering Quirrell’s little disappearing act as of late.”

During the time they’d been watching him, Quirrell would periodically disappear into the Forbidden Forest and neither Snape nor Titania nor any of her fairy servants could keep track of him, losing him for sometimes hours at a time. Titania was getting frustrated if her letters were anything to go by. In her last, she had mentioned asking some of her other allies in the forest to look for him but apparently, that hasn’t panned out yet either.

“You think the oaf let slip how to get past his creature,” Snape said with dawning realisation.

He’d told Dumbledore it was a bad idea to trust Hagrid with such important information. The half-giant was loyal to a fault and took utmost care in accomplishing whatever task was set to him, however, the man couldn’t keep a secret to save his life. He had no filter and was incredibly easy to read. You didn’t have to be a Ligillimens to tell what he was thinking. The Dark Lord would’ve taken one look at him and known every bit of important information he’d ever been privy too.

“It’s a possibility,” she replied gravely. “If Quirrell truly dose know then he’ll bide his time and try to create another distraction. I think that’s part of the reason for the dragon.”

“If that’s true we should keep the affair quiet.” If the students or even the other teachers discovered the dragon there’d be a panic. The ministry would be called and Hagrid would be sent to Azkaban. Fudge and Lucious might try to blame the incident on Dumbledore and the Headmaster would be too busy dealing with the fallout to pay much attention to the Stone.

“My thought’s exactly.” Titania agreed, finally ceasing her pacing. “I’ll handle the dragon, you keep an eye on Quirrell and the Stone. Warn Dumbledore, though I have a growing suspicion that he knows about it already. Also, be careful around Harry and his friends. They still think you’re the one after the stone and if they see you acting suspiciously they might do something rash.”

And hadn’t that been an interesting revelation to read in a letter. He hadn’t been sure whether he wanted to laugh or be angry. At least it was good to know he still passed as being loyal to the Dark Lord after all these years. If it came down to it he may end up needing to go back into his position as a spy and that would be much harder if he gave away his true loyalties now.

“I shall endeavour to be less ‘suspicious’.” He drawled sarcastically. “Now if you wouldn’t mind it is late and I was on my way to bed.”

“Right. Well unless you want some company-” her eyes drifted down along the collar of the hastily tied robe then over to the bed before returning to his face, full of the tell tail sparkle of mischief. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow morning.”

Before he could make any sort of response to that the Fairy Queen disappeared once more in a cloud of glitter.


End file.
